US Think-tanks meet to scuttle polls

The National Endowment for Democracy, which is a major conduit for channelling US regime change funds to quasi-political groups in Zimbabwe, convenes the conference to discuss the MDC-T wish list of media and security sector reforms, among other issues. The conference comes in the wake of the release, yesterday, of a dossier that purported to detail an intricate plot by President Mugabe and Zanu-PF to rig the harmonised elections

The British paper, Daily Mail, made sensational claims that Zanu-PF planned “to steal millions of votes with massive and systematic ballot-rigging combined with widespread intimidation by party thugs.’’

Analysts say the British ‘‘dossier’’ and National Endowment for Democracy conference were meant to coincide with the arrival of the 60-member African Union Short-Term Observer Mission that is expected in Harare this week. The dossier and conference were to feed into the MDC-T campaign to discredit the elections amid reports President Mugabe’s highly subscribed rallies and several recent surveys pointing to a Zanu-PF victory had prompted the MDC-T and its allies to create self-fulfilling prophecies to justify rejection of poll results.

MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai is already singing the rigging refrain. Sources close to developments yesterday said the National Endowment for Democracy would hold a press conference to condemn the poll preparations.

“The anti-Zanu-PF list of participants has its work cut out; reforms have not been implemented, elections have been rushed, Sadc guidelines have not been implemented, there is no level playing field and a Zanu-PF victory means a rigged election,” said the source speaking on condition of anonymity.

Another US think-tank, the Robert F. Kennedy Centre also released a report titled ‘‘A Promise In Peril: How Widespread Rights Violations Undermine Zimbabwe’s Elections’’ that claimed that violence and intimidation had escalated amid ‘routine intimidation, harassment and arbitrary criminal prosecutions of human rights defenders, lawyers and political activists.’ You will notice that it (the RFK Centre Report) is part of the same campaign to undermine the credibility of our elections and deny a Zanu-PF victory.

“This particular report reflects the State Department’s strategy of using Sadc, through co-option of an influential neighbour, to claim our elections are ultra vires Sadc guidelines,’’ said the source.
The recommendations made by the Kennedy Centre read like the MDC-T’s reform wish-list, a development that analysts said raised a chicken and egg scenario.