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Zimbabwe ballot box seals broken

Monday, April 21st, 2008

By Peta Thornycroft |

Zimbabwe’s regime has been accused of a “concerted effort” to rig the election for Robert Mugabe as it emerged that seals protecting ballot boxes have been broken. A partial recount of the election - which was held on March 29 - is now taking place in 23 constituencies.

A source at the recount at the Bulilima East constituency said: “There are 57 ballot boxes from 57 polling stations. We examined all the boxes from the presidential election and the seal on every one is slit.

“There is a foreign observer here so we hope this has been noted.”

The seals guard the keys to the padlocks on the boxes, which contain all the voting materials from a polling station, including the voters’ roll and ballot papers.

A Zimbabwe police officer looks on as ballot boxes are pilled up on a table at the Domboshava training centre, Zimbabwe

A partial recount of the Zimbabwe election is taking place

Diane Kohler-Barnard, an election observer from the Southern African Development Community and an MP in South Africa’s opposition Democratic Alliance, spent three days monitoring the recount.

“From what I have seen and experienced in Zimbabwe over the past three days, it is clear that the process of recounting the contested wards from the recent elections is fatally flawed,” she said.

“The process had been marred by delays, administrative problems and the clear political intent of blaming the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) for all the problems associated with the recount.

“Of particular concern was the evidence of ballot box tampering that I witnessed personally, which points to a concerted effort to rig the election results in order to bring about a Mugabe ‘victory’.”

She said Zimbabwe’s Electoral Commission had tried to obstruct outside monitoring by “deliberately” giving false information about the venues for the recount.

“There is no doubt that the situation in Zimbabwe is at breaking point as anger over the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission’s failure to release the results of the presidential election escalates,” she said.

Under the Electoral Act, a second round should have been held last Saturday if - as is almost certain - neither Mr Mugabe nor Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition leader, gained above 50 per cent of votes.

David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, said the conduct of the recount “only serves to fuel suspicion that President Mugabe is seeking to reverse the results that have been published, to regain a majority, and to amplify his own count”.

In a parliamentary statement, Mr Miliband called on African leaders not to recognise Mr Mugabe as Zimbabwe’s legal president.

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4 Responses to “Zimbabwe ballot box seals broken”

colin
Posted: Apr 22nd, 2008 at 12:29 am

Why the obsession with Zimbabwe? It’s abundantly clear to a great many in Africa that the British and The West have underlying economic and politacal objectives in Zimbabwe, above and beyond any transparent concern for ‘poor Zimbabweans’, such that any greater issues on the continent seem to always be subsumed by a near demonic obsession with Mugabe. Africans everywhere see through this.

Supposedly, a ballot box here or there has been inappropriately opened, but where was the outrage from Britain when the racist, White Rhodesians opened fire on Africans in what was then Rhodesia? Where were the sanctions?

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Benjamin Chitate
Posted: Apr 22nd, 2008 at 3:10 am

Colin,

Regardless of whatever interests the USA or the British have on Zimbabwe, what Mugabe and his crew are doing is worse than the British and American interests are. The British and the USA may have similar interests as Chna has on Zimbabwe, but China has done worse by supplying arms to an illegitimate government. Mugabe lost the elections, therefore there is no government in place to have ordered weapons. China wants to equip Dissidents to further destroy Zimbabwe - that is completely out of question, my dear friend Colin. Your comments clearly shows you hadn’t looked deeper into the issues at play.

Benjamin Chitate

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Tisuanhuacho
Posted: Apr 22nd, 2008 at 8:22 am

Colin,

Colin open your eyes.I am not surpeised you are a ZANU (PF) member who is benefiting from the mess in which your Party,Government and President has put us in.You say “The West have underlying economic and politacal objectives in Zimbabwe”.Where do you put China in respect to Zimbabwe.You and your party Zanu (PF)are calling China your friend.There is nothing like that young man.You havent read your History.China is not a friendly nation to Zimbabwe,it has got some interests,just like Britain & Anerica.Its now a question of how those interests are going to benefit the ordinary person at the end of the day.From the little time that China has dealt with Zimbabwe,we have seen our standards going down with respect to product quality and service.I have been in Sales and Marketing for almost 18years now and those products that came from the West were ofquality,very affordable and if there were appliances or machinery,backup was guaranteed.Coming back to basics,Zimbabweans need food on their tables and yet your China is exhorbitantly selling arms of war to a bankrupt government to kill hungry people.Do we have war in Zimbabwe?No!Are we under threat from our neighbors?No!We are actually a threat to their peace and stability.So why do we need weapons when there is no food in the country.For your own information,even your Zanu (pf) comrades are getting it thick as well. You talk of sanctions.There are no sanctions on Zimbabwe.These are targeted sunctions to prevent your leaders from wasting our tax on groceries in THOSE COUNTRIES which your comrades are barred from entering.During Smith’s time there were sunctions but we had one of the strongest currencies and Ziscosteel did the trick for Smith.Now we have Diamonds all over Manicaland & Murowa (Zvishavane),platinum in Selusi,Vemiculite in Dorowa and Gold all over the country,but the people are suffering dispite all these foreign curreny generating minerals.So Colin,bear in mind Zimbabweans are not fools.They know what they want.Remember we have one of the best literacy rate and thats a treasure no one can take away from us including you.If Zimbabweans were not inteligent,they could have gone into the streets and country side to demand their stolen victory violently.If you are Zanu (pf) God is watching you.We will get our freedom back one day no matter how long its going to take,and some people will be judged for their actions.My advise to you in not to become one of those to be judged.Ndapedza.

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Tisuanhuacho
Posted: Apr 22nd, 2008 at 2:49 pm

Colin,

Colin open your eyes.I am not surpeised you are a ZANU (PF) member who is benefiting from the mess in which your Party,Government and President has put us in.You say “The West have underlying economic and politacal objectives in Zimbabwe”.Where do you put China in respect to Zimbabwe.You and your party Zanu (PF)are calling China your friend.There is nothing like that young man.You havent read your History.China is not a friendly nation to Zimbabwe,it has got some interests,just like Britain & Anerica.Its now a question of how those interests are going to benefit the ordinary person at the end of the day.From the little time that China has dealt with Zimbabwe,we have seen our standards going down with respect to product quality and service.I have been in Sales and Marketing for almost 18years now and those products that came from the West were of quality,very affordable and if they were appliances or machinery,backup was guaranteed.Coming back to basics,Zimbabweans need food on their tables and yet your China is exhorbitantly selling arms of war to a bankrupt government to kill hungry people.Do we have war in Zimbabwe?No!Are we under threat from our neighbors?No!We are actually a threat to their peace and stability.So why do we need weapons when there is no food in the country.For your own information,even your Zanu (pf) comrades are getting it thick as well. You talk of sanctions.There are no sanctions on Zimbabwe.These are targeted sunctions to prevent your leaders from wasting our tax on groceries in THOSE COUNTRIES which your comrades are barred from entering.During Smith’s time there were sunctions but we had one of the strongest currencies in the world and Ziscosteel did the trick for Smith.Now we have Diamonds all over Manicaland & Murowa (Zvishavane),platinum in Selusi,Vemiculite in Dorowa and Gold all over the country,but the people are suffering dispite all these foreign curreny generating minerals.So Colin,bear in mind Zimbabweans are not fools.They know what they want.Remember we have one of the best literacy rate in Africa and thats a treasure no one can take away from us including you.If Zimbabweans were not inteligent,they could have gone into the streets and country side to demand their stolen victory violently.If you are Zanu (pf) God is watching you.We will get our freedom back one day no matter how long its going to take,and some people will be judged for their actions.My advise to you in not to become one of those to be judged.Ndapedza.

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