Well, that was dismal. Almost as exciting as the election of the new Pope! There were more people administering the referendum than people to vote in it. What this most says to me – the people think the politicians (and politics) are irrelevant.

Legislation. What is it for? There was new legislation recently about some new sticker on the back of pick-ups. Where did that come from? Do the police know or understand it, or is it an excuse to solicit bribes at roadblocks?

In a previous blog, I wrote about spending time stopped on Chiremba Road. I never did find out what, if any, ‘offense’ I had committed, under any legislation.

There is new legislation on fuel costs. Who will enforce this?

I read an article in the Mail and Guardian some weeks back, about 450 vehicles (new/ secondhand/used Japanese imports) a day crossing the border. None of it legal. None of it having duty paid for. And the local car industry was collapsing. This is SERIOUS lack of law enforcement, with SERIOUS consequences for Zimbabwe, and Zimbabwean jobs. Not to mention unsafe vehicles all over the roads, killing people.

There is no rule of law in Zimbabwe. So why must we go out there to dip our fingers in ink to agree, or disagree with a new law? (That is all a constitution is. Basic law.) And who did vote? At another meeting today, one guy there, was the only one of 8 in his office that voted. That is a 12 1/2 percent turnout.

But it all stems from our leaders. They have shown us this is the way it is to be done.

In my case, the Registrar General, Tobaiwa Mudede, should be in jail. He was handed a court order in 2002 ordering him, within seven days, to announce the results of my election. He has never done so. He is in contempt of court. The law says, if you fail to comply with a court order, you will go to jail until you do. It has never been done. Mudede should have been in jail for the last ten years. Yet he is running a senior government office. Taking pay.

Where is the law in Zimbabwe?

The head of the ZNA (treasonous fellow), declares who he will salute, and who he will not salute. As if the army belonged to him, and not the people of Zimbabwe! He will salute who he feels like, and not who the people of Zimbabwe tell him to salute. However, instead of the law taking its course (for treason you get hanged by the neck until dead), this man is still head of Zimbabwe’s Army.

Where is the law in Zimbabwe?

We live in medieval China of the warlords. The Wild West. Harry Potter world, in the last book, where the ministry has collapsed. This is fantasy. Legislature has been made irrelevant, just as the justice system has been made irrelevant. Only power exists.

So why should we get out and vote for something irrelevant?

Standing in the referendum queue was a jab  and casting my  “yes” a hook. And queuing in the Elections will be a ferocious uppercut to all who underestimate my power to effect change.

I live in Hwedza South. On Referendum Day people were quite eager to cast their votes. Admittedly most did not read nor did they even see the document but the better devil to choose was to move away from the old constitution. On the side lines of polling places most were saying they cast a YES vote. Most people are however expressing great concern at why the names & ID Nos are taken down before one can be allowed to cast as this could easily be cross – checked should the need to victimise arise.

Most people do not know 99% of the draft constitution: only land and gay was talked about to the people especially in Zvimba.

Constitutional referendum reports – Kubatana asked our SMS subscribers to share their eye-witness reports from polling stations and voting day during Zimbabwe’s 2013 Constitutional Referendum. We also collected and mapped incident reports submitted by Zimbabwe’s NGOs who were observing the process via the Situation Room. This word cloud shares the observations of more than 600 citizen reporters and 60 NGO incident reports.

Last updated: 12 noon, Monday March 18, 2013

The Situation Room is a joint Zimbabwean civil society initiative to report on Zimbabwe’s Constitutional Referendum.

This map shares incident reports received by the Situation Room and its civil society partners.

You can view the map full screen here

You can also view the map information in table form here

View 600+ citizen reports from the field here

We will regularly update this map and table as we receive new reports.

These incidents include verified reports, such as those received, verified and confirmed by civil society organisations, and unverified reports, those received from citizen journalists which have not yet been verified. Each incident report indicates whether it is a verified report or not.

We will be updating the map throughout the election period to provide an overview of the election environment during Zimbabwe’s Constitutional Referendum.

Members of the Situation Room include: Counselling Services Unit (CSU), Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe (EFZ), Heal Zimbabwe, Kubatana, National Association of Societies for the Care of the Handicapped (NASCOH), The Women’s Trust, Women’s Coalition, Youth Empowerment and Transformation Trust (YETT), Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) and Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP).

I didn’t vote and did not pay it attention. Did not want to increase voter turn out and no motivation whatsoever to participate in a process in which the people ceased to be drivers in any capacity so long ago.