Zimbabwe "elections"

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Legislative "elections" will happen in Zimbabwe on March 31. Of course we'll see that totalitarian sh*thole become even more totalitarian...

Amnesty says fair Zimbabwe poll impossible
15 Mar 2005 23:59:49 GMT

Source: Reuters
 
By Andrew Quinn

JOHANNESBURG, March 16 (Reuters) - Systematic human rights violations by Zimbabwe's government have made free participation in this month's parliamentary election impossible, Amnesty International said on Wednesday.

The human rights watchdog, a frequent critic of President Robert Mugabe's government, released a report on Zimbabwe's human rights situation which it said it would present to international observers ahead of the March 31 vote.

"Persistent, long-term and systematic violations of human rights and the government's repeated and deliberate failure to bring to justice those suspected to be responsible means that Zimbabweans are unable to take part in the election process freely and without fear," Kolawole Olaniyan, director of Amnesty's Africa programme, said in a statement.

"The climate and intimidation and harassment in which the elections are planned is a serious matter for international concern."

Mugabe's government has rejected criticism of its human rights record, which it calls part of a propaganda campaign waged by Western powers opposed to its policy of seizing white-owned farms to give to landless blacks.

CRISIS

Political analysts say the election is almost certain to return Mugabe's ZANU-PF party to power, prolonging a political and economic crisis that has ruined the once prosperous southern African country.

The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) concedes that levels of political violence are lower this year than in past elections, which both the MDC and some international observers have charged were marred with serious irregularities.

But MDC leaders say Zimbabwe's tight media and security laws continue to tilt the political playing field heavily in favour of ZANU-PF.

Amnesty International said it based its assessment on a mission to Zimbabwe in February which found evidence of arbitrary arrest and intimidation of opposition candidates and supporters, manipulation of food supplies for political ends and severe restrictions on freedom of assembly and expression.

It said at least eight MDC candidates including the party's director of elections had been detained this year, while other MDC supporters had been beaten or seen their homes burned.

The state Grain Marketing Board, in charge of distributing Zimbabwe's main staple maize, has continued to manipulate food distribution to disadvantage opposition supporters, Amnesty International said.

"The use of implicit threats and non-violent tactics to intimidate opposition supporters is widespread," Olaniyan said. "Given past acts of reprisal against opposition voters including eviction, assault and denial of food, such tactics create a pervasive climate of fear and threat."

Mugabe -- who has vowed to "bury" the opposition in the vote -- has said ZANU-PF's electoral strength reflects the refusal of most Zimbabweans to accept the MDC, which he calls a stooge of Zimbabwe's Western enemies.

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Mugabe -- who has vowed to "bury" the opposition in the vote -- has said ZANU-PF's electoral strength reflects the refusal of most Zimbabweans to accept the MDC, which he calls a stooge of Zimbabwe's Western enemies.[/i]

Something tells me he will bury them in more then in the vote.

*shudders* I dare not think how.

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3 days until "election" day

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How soon BEFORE thd polls in Zimbabwe close does Jimmy Carter declare the elections "free and fair"

You are such a troll.

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How soon BEFORE thd polls in Zimbabwe close does Jimmy Carter declare the elections "free and fair"

You are such a troll.

Carter loves autocratic leftist governments, that's fact.  How does stating it make me a troll?

You're such a bore!

Umm...I wouldn't call Mugabe a leftist dictator. Not someone who goes around intimidating the leftist opposition party, promotes taliban religion and bashes gays.

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How soon BEFORE thd polls in Zimbabwe close does Jimmy Carter declare the elections "free and fair"

You are such a troll.

Carter loves autocratic leftist governments, that's fact.  How does stating it make me a troll?

You're such a bore!

Umm...I wouldn't call Mugabe a leftist dictator. Not someone who goes around intimidating the leftist opposition party, promotes taliban religion and bashes gays.

Mugabe took power as a socialist/communist.  Like other socialist/communist dictators, Mugabe rigs the vote so that only he can win, and in the even that he still loses, he jails or murders his opponents.  Like other socialist/communist dictators, he steals farmland from the rightful owners, which ensures that famine and starvation will result.  Like other socialist/communist dictators, he uses nepotism to hand out govt posts, land, and national wealth--at the expense of the people he 'fought' to help.  Like other socialist/communist dictators, he has no use for gays or other so-called  'intellectuals' after he has taken power, since they are a threat to continued rule.  Like other socialist/communist dictators he is antagonistic to any religion, social organization, or trade union  that challenges his personal power.


The reference to Carter is pure sarcasm, since Carter has shown fawning support for such socialist/communist dictators as Hussein, Castro, Kim, and Chavez.

You should read "Animal Farm". Then you know what I mean.

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And the opposition is holding seats (no, not an April Fools joke)

http://www.reuters.co.za/locales/c_newsArticle.jsp?type=topNews&localeKey=en_ZA&storyID=8057583

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By Manoah Esipisu

HARARE (Reuters) - President Robert Mugabe's party seized the two-thirds parliamentary majority it needs to change Zimbabwe's constitution Saturday, clinching an election which both the opposition and western powers said was rigged.
   

Official results announced Saturday showed Mugabe's ZANU-PF party winning 71 of the 120 contested seats against 39 for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).


With the president appointing 30 additional members of the 150-seat parliament, ZANU-PF now has the two-thirds majority that Mugabe had set as a major election goal.


MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai has said the polls were marked by massive fraud and held in an atmosphere of fear and political intimidation -- an assessment echoed by the United States, Britain and other major western powers.


Tsvangirai, who has accused Mugabe of rigging the country's previous two elections in 2000 and 2002, has hinted his supporters may launch protests rather than attempt to fight the result in court.


The official Herald newspaper urged the MDC Saturday to accept defeat, saying the party's poor showing was the result of its "reflex reaction" to court Mugabe's western critics rather than Zimbabwean voters at home.


"The lesson the MDC should learn from its defeat is that electoral battles are fought in Zimbabwe, not Europe," the newspaper said in an editorial.


Mugabe, 81, and in power since independence from Britain in 1980, has dismissed criticism of the election, which he said were as free and fair as any in the world.


CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES


Analysts say the party could use its majority to push through constitutional changes to protect Mugabe from the kind of prosecutions that have plagued some other African leaders when they stepped down. Mugabe is due to retire in 2008.


Critics accuse Mugabe of ruining once-prosperous Zimbabwe by a chaotic seizure of white farms for landless blacks and economic mismanagement.


Zimbabwe, once a regional breadbasket, is now crippled by huge inflation, unemployment and food and fuel shortages.


Mugabe blames his Western critics for sabotaging the economy and had demanded a crushing ZANU-PF victory to see off the challenge from the MDC, which he pillories as a British puppet.


The MDC says the whole electoral process favored ZANU-PF and the 5.78 million-strong voting roll was inflated with 1 million "ghost voters." It also questioned why tens of thousands of voters were turned away from polling stations.


MDC party leaders were due to meet Saturday to consider the path forward.


Regional observers from the Southern African Development Community (SADC), who had been expected to give the poll a clean bill of health, expressed concerns.


"The picture that emerged at the close of the poll was an election day which was peaceful. Notwithstanding these initial observations the SADC elections observer mission is however concerned with the number of people who were turned away from polling stations," the mission said in a statement.

   



"It is still not clear to us exactly how many people were affected in this way as well as the reason for them not being able to cast their votes," added the observers.

The conduct of the poll was roundly condemned by Western governments including Britain, the European Union and Germany.

"The independent press was muzzled; freedom of assembly was constrained; food was used as a weapon to sway hungry voters; and millions of Zimbabweans who have been forced by the nation's economic collapse to emigrate were disenfranchised," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a statement.

Even so, campaigning and voting were generally free of the violence that marred parliamentary polls in 2000 and Mugabe's re-election in 2002.

The conduct of those elections is at the root of Mugabe's international isolation.

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Now please point me to Jimmy Carter's praise of Mugabe or his claims that the elections were fair.

This is an article on Jimmy Carter and Mugabe.

the Mugabe of 1980 is far different than today. Look at the archived Freedom House scores.

The question is whether Carter has praised Mugabe recentely, or claimed the recent elections were legitimate, as Notre dame has claimed here.

As I pointed out to you earlier, the comment about Carter was sarcasm, and was based on his earlier comments in which he praises dictators, or dictator wannabees, for winninng their 'free' elections.  I have no doubt that Carter will praise the statesman that is Mugabe for conducting an honorable campaign.   Carter has become a pathetic caricature of a former statesmen.  I guess that is what an ass-whooun at the hands of Ronald Reagan can do to you, even after this much time has passed.

Umm, no. The Carter Center has a record of condemning Zimbabwe's farces  Mugabe calls elections.

"The election process was fundamentally flawed by pre-election intimidation and violence against the opposition by ruling party militants with tacit or even active support from the government, as widely reported by credible international and domestic observers on the scene. Nonetheless, candidates from all parties campaigned actively and relative calm prevailed on the two days of balloting, although a significant number of voters were turned away and scattered reports of intimidation in rural areas were received."

http://www.cartercenter.org/viewdoc.asp?docID=1023&submenu=news

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True, but this time they were banned from observing this election. That's why they made no statement.