30 In Zaka many people registered to participate in the last election through voting but when the time to go to the polls came the numbers had greatly reduced as a result of political intimidation and violence. People were driven out of their areas and had to flee to Harare where they were not registered as voters and so they could not participate in the voting. In their views, people are terrorised, victimised, and arrested by security agents who do not abide by the law. This political intolerance is enhanced through the use of repressive legislation such as the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) and the Access to Information and Protection and Privacy Act (AIPPA). As regards participation, they felt that there is pronounced gender inequality and women are not accepted as leaders nor expected to participate in civil and political life mainly due to cultural prescriptions. Therefore, they argued that there can be no consensus in the decision making process where women, who make up the majority of the population, are excluded. Other minorities are also excluded, with the example being given of the disabled, who are also not treated equally, and who hardly participate in governance at any level. Ignorance plays a large role in the lack of participation, as much of the general public do not know that they have a right to participate; the government perpetuates this ignorance and frustrates civic society’s efforts to educate people when it comes to participation in popular self governance. There was a strong feeling that the general public feels that participating in political life is a waste of time, as it will not change anything, and hence there is seen this sense of resignation45. The participants felt that there had been a worsening in the situation as the Government has put up undemocratic structures that impede participation. Here they argued that the Government has ensured that it is in control of everything, including food distribution, voter education, the media, the police and army, chiefs and head headmen, and the judiciary to mention a few. A major issue concerning consensus was that of the powers of the President. The issue of Presidential appointments compromises the legitimacy of the government, since it was usually Presidential appointees who made key decisions and not the representatives elected by the people. For example, many Ministers, the Police Commissioner and the Judges are all Presidential appointees. In their view, this goes to show that there is no consensus even in Parliament; effectively what the President wants, he gets, while government and parliamentary structures are there merely as rubber stamps for Presidential decisions. Popular selection of decision makers The group were in agreement with both the youth and themselves that there is no popular selection of decision makers. Elections are fraught with irregularities, with strong allegations of rigging, violence46, and vote buying. They came up with a list of all the issues that negatively affected the election process: · · · 45 46 Voting in Zimbabwe is an event not a process. The electorate is not widely involved in the process; theirs is to register and vote. There is no body that just does voter education and not campaigning, and so people are not informed. Civic society is now very partisan, and is incapable of carrying on the role of voter education, as they are now involved in campaigning. Different parties are not given equal opportunities as regards funding and publicity. The public media is biased. This resignation is clearly reflected in the 2004 Afrobarometer survey. See footnote 1 above. For an analysis of the relations between violence and elections see REDRESS (2004), Zimbabwe: Tortuous Patterns Destined To Repeat Themselves in Upcoming Election Campaign. Preliminary Study of Trends and Associations in the Pattern of Torture and Organised Violence in Zimbabwe, July 2001 – December 2003, LONDON: REDRESS TRUST. IDASA: Zimbabwe at the Cross-Roads: Views of Zimbabwean citizens on democracy and transitional justice.