Voter apathy turns by-elections into a sham

By Andrew Kunambura

An unprecedented low turnout of voters in Wednesday’s 16 Parliamentary by-elections, particularly in urban areas, reduced the polls to a sham.

In addition to the low voter turnout, there were widespread reports of irregularities from some constituencies.

Although several schools were temporarily closed to make way for voters people went on their daily routines or stayed at home, as if nothing was happening.

The situation was worse in Harare and Bulawayo with some polling stations recording unbelievably low figures.

At one polling station in Greendale, Harare East, the situation was so bad that when the Financial Gazette crew arrived there around 10am, only six people had cast their ballot while no voter was present at the moment, with polling agents, polling officers and the police lazily around and chatting as if on holiday.

At several polling stations in the high density suburbs, both polling agents and officials found time to sunbath and nap.

As the day drew to a close, the best performing polling stations in Harare had recorded figures slightly above 100 while others were struggling to achieve that.

Glenview 1 shopping centre, Glenview council hall, Dzivaresekwa 2 High School and Kuwadzana 8 Primary School polling stations were completely deserted with no voters in sight.

“I have been a polling officer for some time now and this is the first one in which I have witnessed this level of apathy. As you can see we are halfway through the day and very few people have come. I do not see things improving,” said the presiding officer at the polling station who declined to be named saying he was not authorised to speak to the press.

The duty lay with the constituency polling officer who directed the Financial Gazette to the Harare Provincial command centre which said it will only announce official results.

The glaring voter apathy, in an election that the ruling party ZANU-PF is expected to win after its main electoral challenger, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) boycotted, were occasioned by a bitter split in MDC-T which saw 14 legislators recalled from Parliament and their constituencies falling vacant.

The other two seats were occupied by former ZANU-PF officials – Didymus Mutasa (Headlands) and Temba Mliswa (Hurungwe West) – who were expelled from the ruling.

The same apathy was witnessed situation in Bulawayo with observers indicating that it was hardly noticeable that there were elections going on.

It was business as usual in Makokoba, Lobengula and Pumula with residents walking past polling stations doing their daily routines as if they were oblivious of the voting that was taking place.

The only active polling station that seemed to be Pumula, were three women were turned away after they arrived in ZANU-PF regalia at one polling station.

Reports from headlands and Hurungwe West however suggested that voters had turned out in their numbers although there were also reports of several electoral irregularities including a high number of assisted voters, alleged vote buying and polling agents from opposition parties denied entry into polling booths.

“At Nehumba Primary School, ward 34 (of Headlands), people were having their names taken down from a desk set only a few metres from the polling station. The reason for that was that the people would be given farming inputs in the next cropping season,” said Election Resource Centre (ECR) information officer, Moses Chibaya.

There however no incidents of violence reported. The results are expected to be announced today. Financial Gazette