• • Postal ballots were not counted in some centres. Some ZANU PF agents were chased away from the counting centres and therefore did not observe the count. • Some ZANU PF voters were turned away from the voting. • The V11 forms (posted outside every polling station) were tampered with. • MDC paid ZEC officials to frustrate ZANU PF voters. • Illiterate voters were cheated and were forced to vote for MDC T. 30 A comment allegedly made by a brigadier attending the meeting made it clear that: If ZANU does not win there will be conflict in the country and that will be black against black. We know the United Nations will send in peace keepers, but people will have died by then and there will be no resurrecting them. So you have to protect the revolution. If we lose through the ballot we will go back to the bush. Democracy is only for the educated.31 In an address celebrating Zimbabwe’s 28 years of Independence Mugabe repeated some of the accusations above, noting in particular that Britain and its “lackeys” the MDC, …have perfected their tactics to a more subtle form by using money literally to buy some people and to turn against their government. 32 The full impact of ZANU PF’s response based on this assessment is discussed fully in the section of this report dealing with the post-election violence. 4. SADC and the Regional Civic Responses Since 2000 the SADC has provided regional solidarity for the Mugabe regime in the face of criticisms from the West. Mugabe’s construction of the Zimbabwean crisis as a redress of the colonial legacy on the land question became the predictable mantra in SADC’s responses to criticisms from outside the African continent, notwithstanding reports of growing unease among some members of the regional body towards the Mugabe government. However the long delay in the release of the Zimbabwean election results prompted an emergency meeting of SADC in Lusaka on the 12th April 2008 to discuss the problem. On his way to the Lusaka meeting President Mbeki stopped over to consult Mugabe who failed to attend the meeting, and in a now infamous remark claimed that there was no electoral crisis in Zimbabwe. Referring to the delay in the release of the election results, Mbeki stated: I wouldn’t describe that as a crisis. It’s a normal electoral process in Zimbabwe. We have to wait for ZEC to release (the results.) 33 The official communiqué of the Lusaka meeting took a predictably soft approach to the Mugabe regime, commending the people of Zimbabwe “for the peaceful and orderly manner in which they conducted themselves before, during and after the election.” The summit also urged the electoral authorities in Zimbabwe to ensure that verification and release of results be released expeditiously “in accordance with 30 Ibid. Ibid. 32 Chris Chinaka, “Another tirade against Britain.” Weekend Argus, 19th April 2008. 33 Paddy Harper and Mpupela Mkhabela, “ Crisis?What Crisis?” Sunday Times, 13/05/08. 31 16