It is hardly surprising to hear cops threatening the MDC-T “against fomenting violence”and threatening to throw both supporters and officials into the dingy Matapi holding cells.

I would like to hear the cops threatening the same for Jabulani Sibanda and other characters of doubtful sanity who are on record saying they will return to the bush if Morgan Tsvangirai wins the elections.

You wonder then what kind of conditions are being set in the run-up to the poll which is only three weeks away.

This is the sort of thing that only buttresses criticism of the force being partisan which they should know alongside Zanu PF that this has quite a bearing on the legitimacy of the poll.

In any case, diplomatic missions who have already been denied observer status are watching and so is SADC, but then these people ceased caring a long time ago.

A flawed poll certainly is what Zanu PF seeks.

With Parliamentary elections scheduled for the end of this month, we’ve been wondering how to interrogate Zimbabwe’s outgoing Members of Parliament and learn some lessons from their track record. Particularly in cases where an outgoing MP is running for office again, we’re wondering why their constituents might want to vote for them again – or why they definitely won’t.

With this in mind, Kubatana asked our subscribers how their exiting Member of Parliament used the Constituency Development Fund between 2008-2013 to benefit their community.

We got around 300 replies, from subscribers in 130 of Zimbabwe’s 210 constituencies. Their feedback was mixed, as was the track record of their Members of Parliament in using the Constituency Development Fund. Around one-tenth of respondents did not know how their CDF had been used. Around two-thirds did not think it had been used for anything constructive (or had barely been used).  And about 30% of respondents were impressed with how their MP had used the fund, and noted this as a worth accomplishment.

It’s important to note that this is crowdsourced information – So it hasn’t been verified with the MP in question or with any public record or audit of the Constituency Development Fund. This also means that it speaks to how thoroughly an MP communicated with his or her constituency. In Bikita West, for example, two subscribers said nothing tangible was done for the constituency with the fund, but three reported the MP fixing schools, building clinics and sinking boreholes.

A few sample responses include:

• Mutare South, he brought us a truck of roller meal and sold us@ $2.50 for 10Kg only once. Also employed us at his farm and paid us one gallon of maize per day.
• In Chipinge central MP Alice Chitima of Zanu pf hapana zvaakaita (did nothing). GO CHITIMA GO! I DONT CARE
• Mhondoro Ngezi, we never saw anything. Taingonzwa pa tv chete kuti kune mari yakadaro asi chayakashanda hatina kuchiona. Hamheno pamwe vedu mp vamatonga havana kupihwa mari yacho. (WE only heard on TV that such a fund exists. What it was used for we don’t know. Maybe our MP Matonga was not given the money)
• Chitungwiza South Constituency. Drilled 6 boreholes, bought a printer, built a flea market, removed raw/solid waste. The fifty thousand dollars was used to the last cent.
• Haina kubatsira vanhu mu Kadoma asi yakashanda  kwaari MP CDF fund (The money did not benefit the people in Kadoma but the MP himself)
• Wakadya yose chivi central (He spent it all on himself)
• Bulawayo. I stay in Mpopoma-Pelandaba district, our MP Mr S. Khumalo  used cdf in schools for repairing chairs, desks and repairing residential chairs and benches, about $11000  is still in the bank.

You can access the full list of responses here. And you can take a look at a map of selected responses here.

When the 31 July election date was first announced, the majority of our SMS subscriber expressed their shock and disbelief, and believed that Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was right to state that this date was illegal and unconstitutional.

As a follow up, we let these subscribers know about yesterday’s Constitutional Court decision keeping the Harmonised Election date at 31 July. They were largely unimpressed with the Court’s lack of independence, and concerned about the way this move has undermined the election’s legitimacy before it’s even been held.

In their own words:

• That’s undemocratic for the court to make such a cruel decision
• There must be some hidden agenda from those who are dictating the election dates
• But why, but who, but which, but what.  Are we back to 2000?
• It shows how unconstitutional this constitutional court is, its a matter to be decided by three parties in govnt as SADC said.
• Very sad only God knows
• Zimbabweans should decide on that date whom they wanted to be the President
• This is part of a rigging strategy as many people are still to get registered and necessary reforms are yet to be implemented.
• Let Mugabe run his usual solitary race!
• Sadc should help us this time zanu pf wants to rig elections free and fair elections Tsvangirai will win a landslide victory
• Kubatana! If elect day has been declared then election campaign material should b brought to the ground 4 da campaign teams
• We’re headed for the ugliest electoral fraud in recorded history, mark my words.
• This is ridiculous. How come Zim lets bob get away with everything? Enough.
• Says who? With no free broadcasting, the same old gang playing the same old tricks in ZEC, ZNA, CIO & ZRP/BSAP, no money & violence increasing daily even within ZANU? It’s time to call their bluff

The us of cell phone technology is increasing in Zimbabwe with nine in every ten people having access to a mobile phone. Making calls, receiving and sending text messages are some of the major uses of mobile phones. In a sample size of 1200 adults who took part in a survey conducted by Mass Public Opinion Institute (MPOI) in October 2012, nearly 24% of people have access to the Internet and they access the Internet using mobile phones. Of those interviewed 21% use the Internet for social media and 16% use it to get news.

Radio is still the leading source of information, and among the radio stations in Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation’s radio stations ranked as the most common source of information for public, political and current affairs in the country.

People in Zimbabwe place a lot of trust in information coming from schools and religious leaders both in urban and rural areas. But very few have trust in councils and government representatives as sources of information. Since its inception in 2009, the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee remains unknown to about 62% of the people who took part in the survey, and in areas like Matebeleland North and South people had problems accessing JOMIC.

An overwhelming response from people who took part in the National Census show that almost every household was covered in the census as the country’s ten provinces scored above 90% in visits to households during the census.

As the nation prepares for elections 59% of young people interviewed are affiliated to a certain political party and Mashonaland Central recorded the highest number of youths who are active in party politics whilst Bulawayo youth have less interest as shown by a low figure of 36%.

However fear of political intimidation during election campaigns is still high and many young people are uncomfortable talking about politics. 71% think that in the event of political violence being perpetrated by any political party, reporting it to the police is the most effective way of dealing with the situation. 56% believe the police have the influence to stop violence.

A high percentage of young people interviewed strongly agree that women should have the same opportunities as men in getting elected to political office and of those who agree, 71 % also believe that women should have equal rights and should be treated the same as men.

On democracy and one party rule many youths denounce autocracy, 75 % disapprove of military rule and a majority believe open and regular elections should be used to choose leaders. A democracy with problems is how young people view Zimbabwe but youths are optimistic that five years from now the economy will be better with improved living conditions.

Yesterday, Zimbabwe’s Constitutional Court confirmed 31 July as the polling date for the country’s Harmonised Election. The Court’s decision was unanimous, and rejected all applications which had been pushing for an extension of the election date.

The election date case was being heard by the Constitutional Court because it was their decision of 31 May which created the 31 July deadline, which Mugabe responded to on 13 June, in the first place.

The push for the election date extension was motivated by several factors, including:

• The llegal act by President Mugabe which used the Presidential Powers Act to change the electoral laws
• The fact that the election date required nomination court to be held before the voters roll had closed, which is unprocedural
• The fact that the Global Political Agreement stated that election dates should be decided in consultation, not declared unilaterally as Mugabe did

However, as frustrating as yesterday’s decision is, it is not surprising. The government had several ways around the original Constitutional Court ruling. Amongst other things, the actual ruling says the President should proclaim the election “as soon as possible,” and  that it “should be” (note: not must be) held no later than 31 July. As Veritas points out, the President should have relied on the principle Lex non cogit ad impossibilia [the law does not require one to do the impossible].

Unfortunately, the President went ahead to declare an illegal and unconstitutional election date, and the Constitutional Court has confirmed that this date holds.

Last week, Zimbabwe’s political parties submitted their candidates at Nomination Court, though only the MDC led by Welshman Ncube has made its candidate list publicly available so far. Zanu PF and MDC-T are planning to launch their party manifestos this weekend.

So much for Morgan Tsvangirai’s promise that he “will not accept a situation where Zimbabweans will yet again be railroaded and frog-marched to another illegitimate election.” That is exactly where Zimbabwe is headed on 31 July.

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when I read that Dumiso Dabengwa, a man who I, along many others, respect a lot, said he had invited Welshman Ncube to lead Zapu!

Zapu of course being a project that has not hidden that its existence is informed by politics of the marginalization of Matebeleland by Zanu PF since independence in 1980.

It is one of those outfits which while having legitimate concerns about how Matebeleland has been treated by Zanu PF bigoted hegemony in the past 33 years, it has failed to sell this dream of self-determination to likewise embittered Mthwakazians.

The massive inroads Welshman Ncube’s MDC has made in the region and indeed across the country is just but testimony that regional parties still have a long way to go as far as stirring national loyalties are concerned.

And that’s exactly why Ncube has vehemently dismissed all claims that his is a regional party (he was referred by Mr. Prime Minister rather unflatteringly as a “village politician”) and will not contest for any lesser position other than President of the Republic of Zimbabwe.

So when Dabengwa is quoted as inviting Ncube to join forces with Zapu it raises questions about how politicians seek to participate and sneak into national politics and what constituencies they purport represent.

It has become an increasingly manifest trait that while being aware of their waning political fortunes, or indeed their irrelevance to national discourse, some have seen it fit to ride on the backs of what are seen as popular political movements, and a guy like Simba Makoni quickly comes to mind.

He was himself endorsed by Zapu during the 2008 elections, but their relationship is not being mentioned this year, and the two, Mavambo and Zapu, are instead aligning themselves to parties that have established themselves as formidable challengers to the two-party politics Zimbabwe has come to know.

It is curious then how these parties seek to participate in moving the country forward especially at this juncture where everyone is seeing this as yet another opportunity to end Zanu PF presence on Zimbabwe’s political landscape.