ZIMBABWE: Election Chaos Predicted

There are fears that next month's harmonised elections will be marred by serious logistical problems, amid reports the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is not performing it's duties.

The ZEC has failed to prepare for the 29th March elections because of a lack of resources, especially funding for this mammoth task.

With just five weeks to go to elections, the new constituency and ward boundaries are still to be made public. ZEC has introduced a localised voters' roll, requiring voters to cast their votes at prescribed voting stations, but the electoral body has yet to publish a full list of the polling stations, apart from saying there would be 11 000 polling stations around the country.

Our Harare correspondent Simon Muchemwa said all the ZEC seems to have done since January was to buy luxury vehicles for their officials. He said it was worrying that while everyone else has noticed that ZEC is seriously under funded, the electoral body itself denies this fact.

'Its now weeks before the crucial poll, but there isn't anything on the ground to suggest Zimbabweans are going to vote on the 29th of next month. There is no voter education, no one knows were to go and cast their votes and worse still nobody knows how people will use the ballot papers voting for four different candidates at once,' Muchemwa said.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Support Network, the country's largest independent observer group, has been highly critical of ZEC. Last week they issued a report detailing serious deficiencies in preparations so far. ZESN argues that two weeks after voter registration ended, the ZEC has yet to provide a final report on how many people are registered.

Yet the ZEC last week banned ZESN from carrying out any voter education, saying they needed a licence from government for such an exercise.

Meanwhile, as the chaos spreads, there are still no accredited observers on the ground to monitor the situation. On Monday government announced tough rules for observer groups and journalists. Foreign observers and journalists will be allowed into the country, but they will need an invitation letter from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Journalists and observers from outside Africa will be required to pay US$300, while the fee for observers and journalists from the region has been set at US$100. The terms are no easier for local observers, who will need their own letter of invitation from the Ministry of Justice.

Robert Mugabe has meanwhile commented publicly about Simba Makoni his former ally now challenging him in general elections. In a television interview to mark his 84th birthday Thursday, Mugabe described the former Finance minister as a prostitute.

He once again said he would win next month's polls by a landslide and humble the opposition.

'What has happened now is absolutely disgraceful. I didn't think that Makoni, after all this experience, would behave like this. I compared him to a prostitute. A prostitute could have done better than Makoni, because she has clients. Don't you think so?' said Mugabe.