Malawi civil society groups fear rigged elections in Zimbabwe

LEADING civil society organisations in Malawi have expressed deep concern about the conduct of the electoral process in Zimbabwe, ahead of harmonised elections on March 29.


The NGOs raised the concerns when they held discussions with British High Commissioner to Malawi, Richard Wildash at his official residence.

"Zimbabwe is in dire straits and the situation on the ground is not conducive to the holding of free and fair elections. The political leadership bars Zimbabweans from enjoying their civil and political liberties; civil society and opposition parties are prevented from operating freely", said Billy Banda, Executive Director of Malawi Watch Human Rights.

Undule Mwakasungura, Executive Director of the Centre, echoed his sentiments for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR), who bemoaned the reluctance of many African leaders to speak out as one of the factors aggravating the situation in Zimbabwe.

"Sadly, the situation is getting worse by every passing day. This calls for international solidarity to bring hope and optimism to the many Zimbabweans suffering under the Mugabe regime. We need to speak out openly about the serious violations of human rights and the flagrant disregard for the rule of law," said Mwakasungula.

Over the past few years, SADC has come under attack from pundits for its failure to publicly condemn the human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.

The hostile political environment has caused a devastating economic crisis that has sent inflation spiralling beyond 100,000 percent, unemployment rates in excess of 80 percent and life expectancy at 35 years.

Affordable basic commodities, food, water and fuel have disappeared from the market while foreign exchange shortages have crippled banks.

Wildash said Britain shared civil society's concerns about the serious governance problems in Zimbabwe.

While Britain did not support any candidate in the elections, he said it was regrettable that the Zimbabwean government had barred EU and Commonwealth observers, preferring to invite "only those with friendly ties with Harare".

"That the electoral process is flawed is clear. The voters' roll is in a shambles; over two million phantom voters, names of thousands of people in urban areas missing, hundreds of polling stations located in wrong constituencies and the creation of over 150 new constituencies without proper consultation," he said.

Wildash said that all accredited countries bore the key responsibility of assessing whether the elections met international norms and standards including the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) principles and guidelines concerning elections, of which Zimbabwe is a signatory.