Plot to rig presidential poll

The ruling ZANU-PF party was working on a strategy to relocate about 500,000 registered and new voters from urban to rural areas under the fast-track land resettlement programme to try to bolster its rural support base ahead of next year’s presidential election, the ‘Financial Gazette’ quoted intelligence officials saying this week.

According to the report, the plan was being drafted in conjunction with the Joint Operation Command, a think-tank comprising of ministers of state security, defence and home affairs, as well as army and air force generals and officials from the Central Intelligence Organisation and the police. The ministry of local government, which was overseeing the resettlement programme, and the Registrar-General’s Office, responsible for registration of voters, were also involved in the formulation of the strategy, the report said.

Sources said about 500,000 registered and potential voters in urban areas, the power base of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), would be resettled in the next six months on commercial farms under the government’s controversial fast-track land reforms. The voters, comprising mainly of unemployed and land-hungry urban dwellers interested in venturing into commercial agriculture, would then be required to transfer their votes to a rural constituency in the area they are resettled in. The sources said the plan hoped to take advantage of loopholes in the present Electoral Act, which allowed voters to transfer their votes and register in a new constituency.

In another report, the ‘Financial Gazette’ said a serious humanitarian disaster loomed in Zimbabwe because it lacked funds and a national strategy to deal with the thousands of people likely to come displaced in the run-up to next year’s presidential election. Quoting aid agencies, the report said affected communities would include commercial farm workers displaced by the occupation of farms by war veterans, opposition party supporters or those perceived to be against the ruling ZANU-PF party, school teachers, health workers and other civil servants targeted in rural areas.

The human rights body Forum, which comprises nine non-governmental organisations (NGOs), was already dealing with 50 to 70 new cases of rural residents fleeing violence around the country every month, the report said. In addition, human rights watchdog ZimRights said it had received 73 families and 466 individuals displaced by political violence since March.