Editorial
A Master Class in Hypocrisy
By
Apr 16, 2008 - 11:55:32 AM

There is no end to the hypocrisy of the commentators about the Zimbabwe election. What has happened is that, because of allegations of misrepresentation the ZEC has been asked to recount the ballots in twenty-three constituencies where questions have been raised.

• One of the key questions to be answered is why there were emails and SMS messages being sent from within the US Embassy in Harare which were exercises in disinformation; saying that MDC officials were being slaughtered; that the MDC won 60% of the uncounted vote; that violence was spreading throughout the country, inter alia. Two US nationals, attached to an agency promoting democracy in Zimbabwe and funded by USAID were deported from the country for being caught doing this.
• Several MDC officials were caught trying to suborn the ZEC officials in giving a low count to the ZANU-PF in the election tally. Evidence of this was seized and the ZEC and MDC officials were detained.
• The level of hypocrisy of the world’s leaders to the Zimbabwe elations is very high. There was no one more hypocritical than Levy Mwanawasa, the President of Zambia. This is a man with a short memory. Levy won his first presidential contest on December 27, 2001, with only 29 percent of the vote courtesy of Zambia's first past the post system. His main rival in his inaugural presidential contest, the Western-anointed Anderson Mazoka, who came a close second with 27 percent of the vote disputed Levy's victory. The EU actually jumped the gun and usurped the powers of the electoral commission of Zambia to announce that Mazoka and his United Party for National Development had won the elections. Premature congratulations flowed from Western capitals provoking wild scenes of violence in Lusaka when Levy was finally declared the winner. Then, during his re-election in September 28, 2006 he faced a strong challenge from Sata. Though Levy won with 43 percent of the vote Sata, who made a clean sweep of the cities and towns, prematurely claimed victory, again causing scenes of violence throughout Zambia when Levy began closing the gap when the rural constituencies began reporting in.
• Mozambique's second multi-party elections produced such a close contest that election officials were forced to announce the winners a whole fortnight after polling stations closed as close contests naturally demand intense verification. Just like in Zimbabwe, the close outcome left the opposition Renamo frustrated and threatening to lodge a series of complaints in the Supreme Court. Renamo threatened to make Mozambique ungovernable if Chissano was endorsed ahead of Dhlakama.
  
• In the end Chissano and Frelimo won 133 seats, while Renamo weighed in with 117 in the 250-seat Assembly. Chissano had 52.29 percent of the vote against Dhlakama's 47.71 percent. A bitter Dhlakama dismissed the results as a "democratic farce" and threatened to create "difficult conditions" for Mozambique, which was taken to be a euphemism for a return to war. But the then SADC chair did not call a summit as it was appreciated that election systems by nature involve complex counting. And in Mozambique the system left voters, citizens, diplomats, observers and the media increasingly tense as rumours flew about Maputo perpetrating vote manipulation amid a torrent of threats from Renamo. Finally on December 22, the National Electoral Commission (CNE) announced the results saying it had taken its time recording the initial vote counts as it could not be rushed or tied down by regulations. Renamo meanwhile had capitalised on the delays by holding daily press conferences where it insisted it was winning in six of the country's 11 provinces. Renamo's figures, of course, were dutifully echoed by some local and Western media and non-governmental organisations to a point where Renamo declared itself the winner before the CNE had made even preliminary announcements. The resultant confusion created considerable tension which, combined with Renamo's allegations of fraud and other irregularities, put the spectre of military confrontation over a country that was just coming out of a ruinous war of destabilisation. Security forces were put on high alert as Renamo demanded the elections be declared null and void and a rerun held under the supervision of the "international" community (always ‘opposition speak’ for the West)
• The ‘international community’ is no less hypocritical. This year (2008) Britain just voided another election (in Slough) because of postal vote fraud. In an earlier electoral fraud case in Birmingham (2005), the judge Richard Mawrey, QC, lost his temper with British ministers’ arrogance as he ruled that Labour had organised a conspiracy across Birmingham to win the local elections by rigging postal votes. His trial award found “fraud that would disgrace a banana republic”, while ministers were in “a state not simply of complacency but of denial”.
• However it takes a great deal of memory loss to complain about the two-week delay in announcing the Zimbabwe election results because of reported flaws in the counting system in the tally of election results. There is probably no adult alive on the face of the earth who doesn’t   remember the mother of all such delays; the period from 7 November 2000 to 12 December 2000 which saw the contested election, finally only confirmed by the Supreme Court,  of George Bush as President of the US.