Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum Report — Of Stuffed ballots and Empty Stomachs less cast. In the absence of ZEC figures it is not known how many postal votes were cast for each constituency, but most MDC candidates reported no more than 60 postal votes being added to the final tally. The number of postal votes cast was insufficient to affect the result. Furthermore, although not required by statute, the Chief Elections Officer’s register of applicants for a postal vote indicated the constituency in which they were entitled to vote. This would have made a fraudulent allocation of postal votes to constituencies where they did not belong extremely easy to detect. Reports were received at several polling stations of polling officers adding votes to the ballots boxes at the close of voting, informing those present that these were postal votes received. Since postal votes should be received and dealt with by the Constituency Elections Officer only, these reports are suggestive of blatant stuffing. However, the numbers of votes involved was too small to affect the outcome. Accordingly, it appears that ZEC’s figures do, in the main, reflect ballots cast. As indicated at the outset, that ZANU(PF) should be able to win an election when the majority of voters are under the axe of its poor governance seems to defy logic. Turkeys do not vote for Christmas. However, the MDC does not appear to have lost the election due to a rigged ballot. The reasons need to be sought elsewhere. The fact that the MDC is only challenging the results in 14 constituencies, and that these 14 election petitions do not present any clear evidence of rigging, but rather general procedural complaints, indicates that the MDC itself accepts this fact. Even if most of the contested seats were handed to the MDC by the Electoral Court, it would not change the fact that more people voted for ZANU(PF), on the 31st March 2005 than voted for the MDC. D. WHY ZANU(PF) WON The election was not, as it should have been, a contest between two political parties. The battle was really a contest between the ruling elite and the governed. The distinction between the State and ZANU(PF) has virtually disappeared. ZANU(PF) was able to mobilise all the resources of the State, human and financial, administrative and coercive, to support its campaign. The electoral authorities made no effort to proscribe or limit abuses of this nature. This was not only a huge and unfair advantage in itself, but enabled ZANU(PF) to present itself as being the sole party with the power to deliver, and personified this in the powerful figure of Mugabe himself. In a context where a large proportion of the electorate is held hostage to governmental food handouts many voters, particularly those in the rural areas, find it expedient to vote not for the party they want to win, but for the party that they think will win. 27