Civil society calls for immediate release of Zim poll results

A chorus of concerned voices is growing in Zimbabwe on the delay in the release of the results of the Presidential poll held on 29 March. Civil society organisations based in Bulawayo, church groups and concerned citizens  have resolved to petition the Southern African Development Community and the African Union including regional religious and civic leaders to exert pressure on the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to urgently release the results. This comes in the light of a High Court ruling that the Movement for Democratic Change's case against the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) was urgent and that MDC lawyers had since started arguing their case.

Addressing a press conference in Bulawayo on Tuesday, the organisations expressed a number of concerns where they said that that if ZEC had legitimate reasons for delaying or not announcing the results of the Presidential elections then they should let the nation know.

The organisations that endorsed the action include the Association of Avengelicals in Africa, Bulawayo Agenda, Christian Alliance, Grace To Heal and Habakkuk Trust. Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), Churches In Bulawayo, Radio Dialogue and the National Youth Development Trust as well as the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, the Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association, the Zimbabwe National Pastors Conference, Zimbabwe National Students Union and the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights complete the list.

“The failure to release the results on time has resulted in unnecessary anxiety and tension amongst our traditionally patient and peace loving populace. Even though Zimbabweans exercised their constitutional right to vote, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission seems to have abdicated the imperative, duty and responsibility of releasing results of the presidential election on time,” they said.

They went on to state that in the absence of vital information about who would the nation into the future, Zimbabweans found themselves in the precarious position of not being able to plan their future of even pray for their leaders since they did not know who had won the election.

An appeal was made to President Mugabe to refrain from abusing Presidential Powers to the advantage of either himself or his party (ZANU-PF).
"We therefore call upon President Robert Gabriel Mugabe to ensure that the country's electoral laws are upheld in the event of a run-off ensuring that the re-run is held within the stipulated 21 days," they said.

They appealed to regional leaders at government, ecumenical and civic levels to exert the necessary pressure on ZEC to release the results of the Presidential elections as a matter of what they termed 'the first capital importance.'
 
Meanwhile, civil society organisations have launched a national campaign calling for peace and the respect for the will of the people. Communities from all over the country were being encouraged to converge in their areas to conduct different non-violent social actions such as marches, prayer and public meetings. Organized under the banner of the National Association of Non-Governmental Organisations (NANGO), a working group drawn from its membership met on Monday to strategise on the way forward regarding the current impasse in Zimbabwe.
 
The campaign has adopted the colour white and as a show of support of the effort, citizens were being encouraged to wear white ribbon, scarves and apparel as a sign of the yearning for a peaceful resolution to the crisis in Zimbabwe.

The organisations are demanding the immediate release of the presidential results raising concern over what they termed as ‘incomprehensible explanations’ about the delays. They said that it was worrisome that ZANU-PF as an interested party continued to interfere with the timely release of the results by the ZEC. They implored the election body to assert itself as an independent and impartial election management body perceiving the delays as intolerable since they were causing ‘socio-economic paralysis.’

The organisations further expressed worry that the continuing anxiety and uncertainty around the results was breeding ground for civil unrest. They have identified the 18th of April, Zimbabwe’s Independence Day as an opportunity for all Zimbabweans to speak out collectively in support of peace, fundamental freedoms and respect for the people’s will.

Stopping short of indicating who civil society would support in the event of a presidential runoff, the organisations said that civil society had put in place mechanisms for a coordinated grassroots based civic campaign to ‘make the people’s vote larger, to make it count and to make it last.’