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that voter education is now under the control and direction of the Zimbabwe Election
Commission, and the reports to date suggest that it is seriously deficient in this aspect of its
duties.
The reports concerning the political use of food are also a clear cause for concern. Nearly 72% of
the constituencies sampled reported the political use of food, with the most common report being
an inability to access food without presenting a ZanuPF party card. In the run-up to a highly
contentious election, and in the context of a manifestly serious humanitarian crisis, reports that
food is being used as a form of treating must be immediately investigated. With a recent report
stating that about 4.8 million are in need of food, reports of food being used as a political gambit
are wholly unacceptable.
Our preliminary findings give enormous cause for concern, and, accordingly, we make the
following recommendations:
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There must be immediate steps to remove all partisan forces from the existing
constituencies. This applies particularly to the war veterans and the youth militia.
Here the NCA would point out that the associations between these groups and
significant irregularities are sufficiently serious to warrant immediate action.
There must be immediate steps to set in place an enforceable code of conduct
for these elections. Whilst both parties are implicated in electoral irregularities,
the balance of the evidence to date suggests that ZanuPF is the major culprit,
and the NCA would call upon the Government to take immediate steps both to
restrain its supporters and to call for a consultation between all political parties
on the setting up of an enforceable code of conduct.
In view of the large number of allegations of partisan behaviour by the law
enforcement and security agencies, there must be immediate and public action
by the Government to ensure compliance the law. The NCA calls upon the
Government to ensure that all allegations of partisan behaviour on the part of
these agencies are quickly investigated and publicly dealt with through the
courts.
The complete absence of voter education, especially when these elections are
being run under a new dispensation, is a near-fatal flaw, and underlines the
reasons for the NCA repudiating these elections.
The allegations of partisan access to food are deeply disturbing, especially in the
context of a serious humanitarian crisis. The NCA calls upon the Government to
immediately take steps to ensure that no political party has any access to the
possibility of providing food relief, and to publicly demonstrate to all that food
relief is non-partisan.
It is doubtful that the election climate described above can change much in the coming
weeks, but the NCA will withhold its judgement that the “freeness” component of the
forthcoming election has been fatally damaged. The NCA will issue a final pre-election
report immediately prior to the poll, which will summarise the developments during
March 2005, as well as the whole pre-election climate. The NCA will also provide a final
detailed and statistical report after the elections.
National Constitutional Assembly: Election Climate Reports.