|
Rural voters favoured in Zim
11/03/2008 20:21 - (SA)
Harare - Zimbabwe's Electoral Commission has put too few polling stations in the cities where the opposition has strongest support, an independent election monitoring group said on Tuesday.
The Zimbabwe Election Support Network said a list of polling stations released by the state Electoral Commission for March 29 presidential and other voting showed "a significant discrepancy" that favoured the ruling party in its rural strongholds.
The network said Harare had 379 polling stations for about 760 000 registered voters, leaving an average number of 2 022 voting at each polling station over 12 hours of polling - or 22 seconds for each vote if there was maximum turnout.
Many voters won't be able to cast their ballots
In one city district it came down to nine seconds if all 4 600 registered voters showed up to cast their ballots at their designated polling station on voting day.
Even if voting hours were extended many voters were likely to be turned away when polling stations were finally closed, the network said.
Most rural polling stations would handle only about 600 voters each, the network said.
Noel Kututwa, head of the support network, said unless more polling stations were set up in all urban areas, many voters would not have a reasonable opportunity to vote.
Kututwa said the number of registered voters per polling station in the cities of Gweru and Mutare was also more than double those at stations in surrounding rural districts.
"It would be unfortunate if the problem of too few polling stations in 2002 is repeated," Kututwa said.
Tens of thousands of voters were turned away across the country in those presidential elections when the polls closed.
Elections in 2002 and 2005 won by President Robert Mugabe's ruling party were marred by administrative chaos and plagued by allegations of vote rigging, irregularities in voters' lists and charges that violence and political intimidation influenced voting.
Exports have slumped drastically
On March 29, Mugabe, 84, is running against a former ally, ex-finance minister Simba Makoni, 57, and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, 55.
Makoni draws his support from ruling party rebels and disillusioned supporters of Tsvangirai's fractured Movement for Democratic Change, mostly in urban areas.
The vote takes place amid an economic meltdown - including a shrinking economy, rocketing inflation, shortages of most basic goods and collapsing public services - in the nation once known as a regional bread basket.
Since the government began ordering the seizure of white-owned farms in 2000, production of food and agricultural exports has slumped drastically.
|
News
