Check out this public discussion from SAPES Trust:

Media and politics in Zimbabwe public discussion

Southern African Political Economy Series Policy Dialogue Forum

Topic: The media and politics in Zimbabwe: An overview
Date: Thursday 16 May 2013
Time: 5pm – 7pm
Venue: SAPES Seminar Room, 4 Deary Avenue, Belgravia, Harare

Presenter: Trevor Ncube, Chairman of Alpha Media Holdings (AMH)
Chair: Dr I. Mandaza, Executive Chairperson, Sapes Trust

All welcome!

Cost: $10 for non-members. SAPES TRUST Policy Dialogue Forum Membership forms available at entrance.

Feel free to visit our website at www.sapes.org.zw

Voter registration arrests: Three activists with the Election Resource Centre were arrested on Saturday for encouraging Zimbabweans to register to vote during the country’s mobile voter registration exercise. We’ve just received this update from the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition about the three, who were involved in the X1G campaign:

ERC Director to hand himself over to police as volunteers remain in custody

The Election Resource Centre (ERC) Director, Tawanda Chimhini will today, Monday 13 May, hand himself over to the police in a bid to secure the release of the three volunteers that were arrested by police in Borrowdale on Saturday 11 May.

The three volunteers namely, Farai Saungweme, Wadzanai Nyaku and Moses Chikura have been in custody for the last 48 hours after police handed them over to the Law and Order Section after their arrest.

The trio had been carrying out activities under the ERC’s popular 1st Time Voter Generation (X1G) campaign aimed at encouraging youths to register as voters when they were inexplicably arrested.

Speaking to the Crisis Report, the ERC Director, Tawanda Chimhini speculated that the arrests could be a ploy to unjustifiably charge the organization under section 40 of the Zimbabwe Electoral Act, which forbids individuals from conducting voter education without seeking permission from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC).

“It is not clear what they are being charged with but the likelihood is that this could be a way of preferring charges against the organization itself. It’s possible that we may face charges of engaging in voter education illegally but such a charge would be unfounded because the X1G project has been ongoing for months now and it is an exercise meant to encourage the youth to register to vote and not to educate them on how to vote,” said Chimhini who revealed that he would be handing himself over to the police later today as a representative of the organization.

Chimhini said the arrests were totally unwarranted but were hardly surprising given that there was an emerging pattern of harassment that his organization had noted of late as some members of the police took it upon themselves to disrupt their activities.

“Just last Wednesday, we had the police barring us from carrying out our activities at the Great Zimbabwe University in Masvingo. They informed me that we needed to get clearance from the Governor before we could encourage young people to register. I don’t think that it’s necessary for me to be granted permission to speak to the youth who are my peers about registering to vote,” said Chimhini.

He said it was baffling that the police were disrupting their work when the X1G initiative had received a lot of traction among the youth and electoral stakeholders such as the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) who have been actively participating in the ZiFM and Star FM radio programs that the ERC was flighting.

“We have had ZEC officials featuring on our radio programs on ZiFM and Star FM and we have also had them on board for some of our other initiatives around encouraging the youth to register. If these activities were in contravention of any statute then we expect that ZEC would have informed us. So these arrests are hard to explain,” said Chimhini.

Chimhini revealed that the three volunteers were holding up well although one of them was experiencing depression and had not been able to eat since Saturday whilst the families of the volunteers were not pleased given that their incarcerated relatives had not committed any crime.

Vote Zanu PF and get funding for your business proposal?

With elections coming up in Zimbabwe, political parties are trying to win voters. Recent studies have indicated that Zanu PF support is growing. In a country with unemployment as high as 95%, income generating projects are a sure way to win support.

Of course, no party can afford to fund every would-be voter’s income generating project. And clearly, bringing your business project proposal to the Zanu PF rally is no guarantee that it would get funded. But posters like this do raise eyebrows.

Recent reports including the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition‘s Pre-Election Detectors and the International Crisis Group’s Zimbabwe: Election Scenarios suggest that Zimbabwe’s 2013 election probably won’t be marred by the overt violence experienced in 2008. But they also won’t be free and fair. Rather, they suggest Zanu PF will use more subtle tactics – including the unfree press, executive powers, and its legacy of intimidation – to secure a win. Other recent studies have suggested that the March Constitutional Referendum might have been a practise run for Zanu PF to test their vote rigging mechanisms, and to ensure high turn out so that stuffed ballots in a general election are met with less suspicion.

The MDC might have a JUICE plan to revive the economy – including the promise of 1 million jobs. But I can imagine a “Vote Zanu PF and get your project funded” message could be pretty compelling.

Mobile voter registration in Zimbabwe was meant to begin in January. But the three week exercise has only finally gotten underway recently. The publicity around it has been poor, and the rules have been changing along the way. Take for example, Saturday’s Herald headline: ZEC waives voter registration requirements. This development will make it easier for some people to register moving forward, but it prejudices those who might have tried earlier this year, and who were turned away.

I was prompted to try my luck at a mobile voter registration station this weekend, when I saw a flyer that said I could also get a replacement ID at the same spot. Since I need the ID before I can register anyway, it seemed like a great opportunity. Granted, I heard about the initiative late in the day – So I was not among the “early birds.” By the time I got to Courtney Selous Primary School around 3pm on Sunday, the place was packed. There were easily 250 people there, some sitting on the grass outside the school grounds, a short queue at the gate, and a large knot of people inside the school forming at least four different queues.

After 20 minutes spent wandering around the various queues at trying to figure out where I should stand to get a replacement ID, and another hour standing in the correct but slow-moving queue for a replacement ID, it began to dawn on me that I would never get served before the spot closed at 6, so I left empty handed.

The fact that there were so many people there is encouraging – And means that maybe voter education around the new Constitution and changing requirements for voters is paying off. It also means that maybe interest in Zimbabwe’s 2013 elections is greater than some analysts had feared, and makes things like the reported high voter turn out in the Constitutional referendum perhaps more credible.

But mobile voter registration needs more days, more locations and more clarity. If it is not just to be one more example of Zimbabwe’s politicians paying lip service to citizen participation, and doing the bare minimum to tick the various boxes to demonstrate compliance with required processes, the exercise should be extended for at least another month, with more stations and more signage and directions for people about what to bring, where to go, and where to queue once they get there.

Mobile voter registration is currently underway in Zimbabwe. You can find out where the mobile voter registration teams are, and when, by downloading the list from our website. Search the list for your province and district, and check the dates for when they will be in your area.

Visit the Registrar General’s website or the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission website to find out what documentation you need to bring with you to register to vote.

Regarding mobile voter registration, one Kubatana subscriber reports this from Chikomba East:

People frustrated – Mobile voter registration is continuing with irregularities here in Chikomba East. Firstly, its publicity is & information dissemination is poor & confusing especially on payment of lost I.Ds. Again, the proof of residence issue must be reviewed as it is affecting & must be replaced with specially designed affidavits. Youths & new voters are being frustrated by the RG’s staff whose conduct is uncooperative. Most MDC supporters names are not in the voters roll & it is surprising. Also, the 6 hour-one day time per station is not adequate.

These comments reflect observations also made by the National Youth Development Trust (NYDT) in their analysis of mobile voter registration so far.

Get registered! Find out when the mobile voter registration team will be near you, and let us know how it went for you when you registered to vote.

Zimbabwean electoral reform and conditions are the subject of much discussion as Parliament begins debate on Zimbabwe’s Draft Constitution this week.

The Constitution, however, is just the beginning. As an article prepared for the Zimbabwe Election Support Network points out, a great deal of legal reform needs to happen in the coming months to prepare for Zimbabwe’s elections. For example, Zimbabwe’s Electoral Act will need to be revised to accommodate new structures including proportional representation.

In addition, the Zimbabwean electoral landscape needs to loosen up. This includes the media, the voter registration process, and also a respect for basic human rights like freedom of association, expression and assembly.

The International Crisis Group’s latest report Zimbabwe: Election Scenarios recognises the challenges that Zimbabwe’s electoral process will face this year, but is optimistic that if SADC draws “red lines” (think the US + Syria) which are enforced, Zimbabwe’s next election could be peaceful, and yield a credible result.

But as they note in their conclusion:

Progress is possible, but only if fundamental contradictions between the parties’ interpretation of what is now required are resolved. Whereas the MDC formations have called for the full resolution of outstanding election roadmap issues even after adoption of a new constitution, ZANU-PF says the new constitution should supersede the roadmap. Without agreement on such important issues, Zimbabwe is not ready for elections. At the same time, without a more concerted effort, there is no guarantee that deferring the election further will indeed lead to reform. At the very least, more robust engagement of civil society and citizens with SADC facilitators and GPA mechanisms, such as the JOMIC, is required to develop confidence in Zimbabwe’s battered institutions, especially through the deployment of an expanded monitoring presence.

This is exactly the problem: “Without agreement on such important issues, Zimbabwe is not ready for elections. At the same time, without a more concerted effort, there is no guarantee that deferring the election further will indeed lead to reform.”

If neither local politicians nor pressure from SADC have helped get agreement on these issues yet, why will the next six months be any different?