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This follows his announcement at an MDC-T rally in Harare over the weekend, that his party would not only unilaterally announce election results if the Zimbabwe ElectoralCommission failed to do so within 12 hours of close of polling, but that he would misrepresent to the world that his boss, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, will have won by 70 percent of the vote.
This is despite the fact that the amended Electoral Act says only ZEC has the mandate to announce election results through its chief elections officer within five days of polling.
Observers said it was shocking that Mr Biti, a lawyer by profession, would announce plans to wilfully break the law, not once, but twice.
Mr Biti expressed similar sentiments during a discussion forum on the referendum held at Sapes Trust in Harare on March 27 where he said though he was aware that the Electoral Act says no one, except ZEC, should announce election results, he would announce the results regardless.
“Even though the new Electoral Act now says no one except the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission should announce election results, I want to guarantee you that I am not going to announce the election results but I am going to announce our own because I (won’t be) breaking any law,” Mr Biti said.
He repeated the sentiments over the weekend, saying: “We are giving ZEC 12 hours to announce results or else we will be in Steward Room (at the Meikles Hotel) announcing that Save (Tsvangirai) has 75 percent,’’ he said, adding that “If other countries who have more than 90 million voters like the United States of America could announce results within hours, I do not see why Zimbabwe, with around six million voters, could not follow suit.”
Mr Biti went further: “As it is, the chief election officer, who is (Mr Lovemore) Sekeramayi, has the mandate of announcing the results, but we want Rita Makarau to announce the results,” he said.
Analysts slammed Mr Biti for playing to the gallery, saying the countries he cited use electronic voting where votes are tallied as they are cast and immediately released at close of polling whereas Zimbabwe uses manual voting.
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A Law Society of Zimbabwe member who chose to remain anonymous questioned Mr Biti’s judgement and motives.
‘’How can you cite the relevant law, then in the same sentence say you won’t be breaking the law, when you are a lawyer? What an oxymoron! Or maybe what a moron. What are his motives?’’
The LSZ member said the law must take its course should Mr Biti wilfully invite its wrath.
Professor Jonathan Moyo, a Zanu-PF Politburo member and legislator for Tsholotsho North also slammed Mr Biti.
“Even with the best of optimism it’s absolutely ridiculous for anyone to expect Zec to announce the election results within 12 hours,” he said.
“As a matter of fact, most polling stations will still be compiling the outcome. Therefore the proposition of 12 hours is inherently absurd but what is useful is that Tendai is actually promising to do the illegal announcement of false results in order to cause chaos and mayhem and to instigate violence.
“He has indicated that he is going to announce the results from Steward Room in the Meikles Hotel that Tsvangirai is getting 75 percent, something he knows is false and will not happen.
“The indication in itself is illegal even now because it is intended to cause alarm and despondency. Tendai would have been arrested if it was in the United States or Britain.”
Mr Biti – who is also finance minister in the inclusive Government – was arrested in 2008 for announcing unofficial presidential results when he claimed that Mr Tsvangirai had won by 50.3 percent to obviate a run-off.
However, official results by Zec indicated that Mr Tsvangirai had led the first round by 47.9 percent to President Mugabe’s 43.3 percent culminating in a runoff in which Mr Tsvangirai was soundly beaten.
Mr Bit was arrested for contravening Section 31 (a) (iii) of the Criminal
Law (Codification and Reform) Act for communicating or publishing
statements prejudicial to the State.
Prof Moyo, who is also a Jomic member, said Mr Biti would not get away with breaking the law this time around.
“He must be told in no uncertain terms that this time he is not going to get away with it. We know this is a project he started when he got in Government as minister of finance, the first thing he did was to remove duty on mobile phones because they want to use these mobile phones to announce the false results.
“This is a serious security threat. We know the MDC-T has been working with schools and teachers to be involved in this whole thing.
“It also puts into the limelight the Americans, New Zealanders, Australians and the Canadians who are the source and the intended consumers of these illegal announced results. We know Tendai is not alone in promising this illegal act,” said Prof Moyo.
Mr Christopher Gwatidzo, a lecturer at the Midland State University, said Mr Biti was bent on creating anarchy.
“Biti is now synonymous with going against the law with the intention of courting attention. He is said to be a top lawyer and politician who is expected to know what the law says. It is unfortunate for a lawyer of his standing to deliberately seek to create confusion in the country. One fails to understand his motivation for breaking the law because a lawyer is expected to speak measured words.
“He is already inciting the nation not to be patient. He is being irresponsible because he participated in negotiating the amendments (to the Electoral Act) while on the other hand he leads a crusade castigating what he participated in,” said Mr Gwatidzo.
Chairperson of the department of politics and administration at the University of Zimbabwe, Dr Charity Manyeruke said Mr Biti was supposed to respect the law as a lawyer.
“The law is very clear as to who is mandated to announce the results within five days. We cannot understand why a whole secretary general of a political party would rush to blame Zec when he is part of the Government that created Zec.
“It is clear that there is a problem within their party because they want to cause havoc in the administration of Zec. One can only suspect that they could be conniving with the prophets of doom who want to see Zimbabwe’s elections failing and this is only the beginning of that.
“Those statements are very reckless. We would have expected him as a top lawyer and a minister to respect the laws,” said Dr Manyeruke.
US embassy cables released by whistleblower website, WikiLeaks, revealed that Econet Wireless boss Mr Strive Masiyiwa actively worked with the MDC-T to develop a sophisticated plan to extra-territorial break the Electoral Act in 2008 by setting up an election command centre in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Mr Masiyiwa reportedly detailed his plan to the US officials in Pretoria during a meeting held on March 19 2008 according to a report by the then US ambassador to South Africa Mr Eric Bost.
Said Mr Bost: “Masiyiwa has created a parallel vote count centre, based in Johannesburg that will report the results publicly as soon as they are available, independent of and in advance of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission announcements.”
According to the plan, MDC-T officials at polling stations would text or phone conveying the results through Zimbabwe mobile phones or some satellite phones in case of network interruptions to Mr Masiyiwa’s man in South Africa for onward transmission the world over.
Security experts say the MDC-T’s plan was clearly designed to trigger anarchy because in the event Mr Tsvangirai loses, as is most likely given recent surveys, MDC-T supporters would be made to believe the result would have been rigged sparking violence.
Kenya’s losing presidential candidate, Mr Raila Odinga who is a close ally of Mr Biti’s party, triggered the mayhem of the 2007/8 poll that cost over 1200 lives after unilaterally claiming victory yet he had been trounced by Mr Mwai Kibaki.
Online Reporter