The Voter Education “Ghost” In Zimbabwean Harmonised .

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International Journal of Research in Humanities and Social StudiesVolume 1, Issue 1, November 2014, PP 44-55The Voter Education “Ghost” in Zimbabwean HarmonisedElections of 2008 and 2013: What can be done? Case of Midlands,Gweru DistrictDidmus DewaLecturer of Development Studies and PeaceZimbabwe Open UniversityMidlands RegionTafadzwanashe MuchemwaDevelopment Practioner with Gweru General HospitalAbstract: Zimbabwean harmonised general elections of 2008 and 2013 have been marred with votingirregularities and mainly voter aparthy. There has been serious political constentations over the voter educationpractice with various stakeholders engaged in direct, formal as well as indirect and informal voter education.Despite political parties and Zimbabwe s Electoral Body- Zimbabwe Election Commission taking part in votereducation, the results have been the same. Many people do not vote, many people are turned away from pollingstations and many spoil their ballot papers. This research sought to find out the challenges and prospects ofvoter education in Zimbabwe with particular emphasis on Gweru District prior or during the 2008 and 2013Harmonised Elections. The study also sought to understand and find out the challenges of voter education sincethe numerous concerns by the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), political parties and other stakeholders inthe electoral process pertaining to voter apathy, spoilt ballots and voters turned away revolved around votereducation. In view of the voter education problems noted it was imperative to look at prospects of votereducation and make recommendations for improvement. The research adopted a qualitative approach andminimally made use of some quantitative data presentation and analysis techniques. Officials from CSOs andpolitical parties that were operating in the Gweru District during the period under study were interviewed. Theresearch found that voter education had limited duration, lack of adequate funding, lack of resources. ZEC wasunprepared, the Electoral Act (Chapter 2:13) was not favourable to the other stakeholders such as CSOs andgovernment failed to honour its mandated duties and obligations to ensure that ZEC was adequately funded andresourced. The major recommendation is that ZEC and other stakeholders such as CSOs should come up with aco-ordinated voter education so as to solve the challenges that were faced.1. BACKGROUND TO THE STUDYVoter education is a world-wide concept/practice expected to take place prior to the elections andfailure to do so will attract condemnation and discrediting of the electoral process. Principles of votereducation include comprehensiveness, integrity, inclusiveness, accessibility, transparency, credibilityand security, among others. Voter education is about informing citizens on how to vote, exercise theirrights and the whole electoral process. Successful voter education ensures that voters are ready,willing and able to participate fully in the election process; and is essential to ensuring voters are wellinformed and can effectively exercise their voting rights and express their will on election day (Scytl,2013). As such it should be conducted by an independent non-partisan group or institution. However,if conducted by political parties the difference would be the partisan nature of voter education, as thepolitical entities parties utilise it to garner more votes over their opponents. Even if analysts accordingto the Standard (June 16, 2013) believe that political parties and CSOs have right to participate invoter education, in Zimbabwe ZEC is the body mandated to do voter education while list politicalparties restricted to political campaigning.Nevertheless CSOs use different forms of voter education that ranges from candidate events, issueadvocacy, legislative scorecards, voting records and candidate questionnaires. It is important that bothmen and women must understand their rights, their political system, the contests they are being askedto decide, the voting process and where the polling stations are located. IJRHSSwww.ijrhss.org44

Didmus Dewa & Tafadzwanashe MuchemwaVoter education is not limited to teaching people how to fill out a ballot (Gothe, 1997), but providesinformation on the eligibility to vote, where and how to register as a voter, where to check/inspect thevoters’ roll to ensure that your name is present, the type of elections and election date, how to vote,who the candidates are and how to lodge dissatisfactions. When doing voter education, factors takeninto consideration includes high rates of illiteracy or the use of different languages in a country, evenif there is one official language (UNDP, 2003). Minority groups, internally displaced persons andother marginalised segments of society should be specifically targeted; as well as the eligible voters.Voter education should strongly encourage the citizens to vote. Effective voter education starts earlyand continues throughout the election process (UNDP, 2003). Voter education should not be one-offexercise done just for 90 days before an election; it must be a continuous exercise throughout the year(ZCBC, 2008: 16).Though ZEC a commission mandated to provide voter education and voter registration claims to havemet its legal obligation to that effect, a lot of concerns have been raised by political parties and CSOspertaining to its inadequacy, short duration, lack of resources and funds. It is a result of theseshortcomings that participating political parties disputed the election results, as they allege voterigging. Looking at their grievances and claims one will see them pointing to voter education andvoter registration.As losers claims there were noted problems such as voter apathy, spoilt ballots’ and voters turnedaway. It is against this background that that this research seek to understand why there was voterapathy, spoilt ballots’ and voters turned away when voter education is claimed to have been done,well-funded and the duration it was undertaken was reasonably adequate as claimed. The researcher isof the opinion that if all the stakeholders had taken this exercise seriously such negative claims orsentiments would be minimal or non-existent. Voter education exercise is of paramount importance tothe electoral process and serves as a democratic pre-requisite.2. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEMDuring the 2008 Harmonised elections there was a marked decrease of registered voters whoparticipated in the elections by 38% when compared with the 2003 elections (Parliament ofZimbabwe, 2011). According to ZEC statistics during the 2013 Referendum 718 votes were rejectedin Gweru District, with Gweru Urban and Mkoba constituencies 180 and 150 respectively(www.zec.co.zw). It is estimated that Gweru Urban and Mkoba constituencies had about 28 589 and30 794 registered voters respectively in 2008; while in 2013 about 29 060 and 30 819 respectively.About 34% and 38% was the estimated voter turnout for 2008; while for 2013 was 52% and 53%respectively (www.sokwanele.com).The incidents of voters turned away and spoilt ballots underscores the importance of voter education;which is premised on informing the citizens on the requirements for electorate to be eligible toexercise their right to vote. Statistics released in respect of the 2008 and 2013 Harmonised Electionspointed out that a significant number of the electorate brought unsuitable forms of identification suchas driver’s licence, expired passports, photocopies of National Registration Certificates and businesscards; a scenario that resulted in them being turned away. It should however, be noted that activeparticipation of the citizens eligible for voting in this instance is one of the pre-requisites ofdemocratic processes such as the just ended elections of Zimbabwe.In the Midlands Province in which Gweru Urban and Mkoba constituencies falls under. ZEC recorded5363 spoilt ballots and the turnout was 44% in the first round of the presidential elections(www.electoralgeography.com). In view of the above it is important to explore the challenges of thevoter education with regard from 2008 Harmonised elections to 2013 Harmonised Elections andprospects.In Gweru Urban, during the 2013 Harmonised Elections MDC-T had 7 755 votes, while ZANU-PF 6146 and MDC-N 578 The statistics indicate that about 14 581 of the registered voters in did not voteand basing on the 2012 Census (ZimStat 2013). The Gweru Urban population is a youthful one whichmakes assumptions that the youths did not actively participate in the election. In view of the numberof registered voters it is evident that effective voter education is a pre-requisite to encourage thepeople to exercise their democratic right.International Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Studies45

The Voter Education “Ghost” in Zimbabwean Harmonised Elections of 2008 and 2013: What can bedone? Case of Midlands, Gweru DistrictTable. Midlands Province 2013 Referendum resultsDistrictYes VotesNo VotesChirumhanzuGokwe SouthGweruShurugwiZvishavaneGokwe 1,9933,3112,2224,02422,139Total tal votes 81407,522Source: ZEC (2013)A closer look at number of people that voted during the 2013 Referendum (Table above) and the 2013Harmonised Elections clearly revealed that some people who voted during the referendum did notvote during the elections. 56 636 in Gweru District voted during the 2013 Referendum while theregistered voters for the same period is 59 879. 29 154 voted in the 2013 Harmonised electionsindicating a difference of 27 482 people who did not vote during the harmonised elections but whohad voted in the 2013 Referendum.One of the political parties, the Movement for Democratic Change Tsvangirai formation (MDC-T)claimed in its petition challenging the electoral result in the Constitutional Court; that more than 500000 voters in urban areas were turned away without voting (Newsday, August 6, 2013). The problemin this claim is why people who had received voter education were turned away for reasonshighlighted above and when millions of dollars had been allocated for the two month long votereducation programme.3. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDYThe main objective is to research the challenges encountered in voter education in Gweru.Other Objectives:1. To analyse the impact or effectiveness of voter education by CSOs, ZEC and political parties.2. To find the prospects in voter education exercises in Zimbabwe.Research Questions1. How effective was the voter education in influencing the electorates behaviour during the 2008and 2013 Harmonised Elections of Zimbabwe; and to what extent did partisan oriented votereducation affected the electoral processes and outcomes?2. What were the challenges to voter education exercise in the run to 2008 and 2013 HarmonisedElections?3. How effective were the tools and strategies used in the voter education?4. Did funding have any negative impact to the voter education programme?5. How effective was the voter education conducted by ZEC, CSOs and political parties?6. How did the government/ZEC policy and electoral law(s) impacted on the voter education?7. What are the prospects of voter education to propel democratic elections?4. JUSTIFICATION AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDYThis research will provide the missing link from other investigations by other researchers. Dewa(2011) focused on voting patterns and behaviours during the 2008 Harmonised Elections withoutdwelling much on the factors that influence patterns and behaviours; of which voter education iscentral. Mapuva (2013) in his studies sought to highlight the controversial way elections have beenheld in some countries, which have led to the loss of confidence with the results, in some cases, thedisputed elections has led to civil wars, re-run of the electoral process or the formation of coalitionInternational Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Studies46

Didmus Dewa & Tafadzwanashe Muchemwagovernments. Although Mapuva (2013) highlighted the importance of civic education, his study failsto give information on its impact and influence to the election process and outcome; an area whichthis researcher seeks to explore to complement such previous studies.The purpose of the study was to find out the challenges and prospects of voter education in GweruDistrict (Gweru Urban and Mkoba constituencies); in view of the problems encountered during the2008 and 2013 harmonised election in Zimbabwe, such as rejected votes and voters turned away dueto various reasons. After the inquiry the research will inform stakeholders involved in elections onwhat to do in order to face the envisaged problems.The study dig deeper on the influence of voter education to electorate participation in elections, anarea which many researchers have stumbled on or inadequately gave attention despite it being pivotalto the whole electoral processes. Incidences which took place after the 2008 and 2013 HarmonisedElections, when the MDC-T refused to accept the result(s) deciphers problems in voter education.Mapuva (2013) in his study was concerned about elections and the electoral process in general terms;although he briefly deliberated on civic education, the research failed to adequately look into theinfluences/impact and challenges of voter education. In view of that this study will provide themissing link in previous researches.Dewa (2009) studied the factors affecting voting behaviour and voting patterns in Zimbabwe’s 2008Harmonised elections; however, his study does not give much attention to voter education which is adeterminant of voting behaviour and patterns. In this context this study will also complement otherstudies previously undertaken. This research will enable the electoral environment and processes to beunderstood, as well as the motivation and level of electorate participation.5. RESEARCH METHODOLOGYThe researcher made use of the qualitative methodology and the descriptive research design.Information was obtained through primary sources of data, semi-structured/open ended interviews.6. POPULATIONIn this study, the population included political parties’ representatives, CSOs and the residents of theCity of Gweru since they have first-hand experiences of what transpired in theircommunity/constituencies with regard to the voter education; as well as their level of involvement andparticipation.7. SAMPLE AND SAMPLING PROCEDUREThe researcher specifically targeted the local offices of ZEC, ZANU PF and MDC-T because they arethe major players in the process due to their huge following. ZESN and other CSOs operating inGweru also constituted the targeted groups. The researcher made use of the purposive sampling. Themain reason being the need to select individuals’ or respondents that will provide the most usefulinformation about the topic under study while at the same time taking into consideration thelimitedness of time.The sample involved 10 representatives of political parties’ and CSOs operating in the Gweru Urbanand Mkoba Constituencies such as ZESN and GURA. The researcher employed purposive samplingfor the political parties’ representatives/ politicians chosen understudy since they were part of bodiesthat had an influence to the electoral processes. Focus group discussion information gathered is alsopresented. Tables, figures and percentages are used to show the responses. It is important to note thatsince the area under study is political and some officials’ targeted feared victimisation if participatedin the research interviews and FGD, in such cases convenience sampling was the alternative.8. SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEW AND FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSIONSemi-structured interview was used to probe further on issues/topics that could not be adequatelyexplained. Interview(s) involved face to face or direct verbal interaction and telephone interviewsbetween the interviewer and the interviewee. It was also used to find out their opinions from theirknowledge and experience as professionals.The information supplied by the interviews was blended with information from audio-visual andwritten records; as well as newspaper articles to bring about the real situation or answers to the areaunder study. The researcher was aware of the fact that interviews have the disadvantage of providingInternational Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Studies47

The Voter Education “Ghost” in Zimbabwean Harmonised Elections of 2008 and 2013: What can bedone? Case of Midlands, Gweru Districtdifferent information from different people and may not be able to make comparisons among theinterviewees. The Interview was semi-structured and the questions short and clear. The researcher didnot give chance to arguments and avoided general questions.Focus group discussion (FGD) of not more than ten (10) people was conducted since time was limitedand to cater for some people who feel more comfortable when talking in a group than alone. Theresearcher acted as the moderator and introduced the issues for discussion and controlled thediscussion to ensure that it was confined to the topic under study.9. FINDINGS9.1. Challenges Encountered in Voter Education in Gweru.Table above indicates that voter education in Gweru faced numerous challenges such as thelimitedness of the voter education duration which resulted in inadequate voter education conductedand many residents eligible to vote unable to register. The inadequate voter education and limitedduration therefore, culminated in electorate with insufficient information, hence the voters turnedaway for reporting in wrong wards, bringing wrong documentation and non-appearance on voters’ rolldue to failure to inspect the voters’ roll. It is also important to note that the limitedness of the votereducation hindered the people previously labelled “alien” from regularising their citizenship andregister as voters’.10. DISCUSSION OF FINDINGSMuch of the voter education was conducted by ZEC within the short timeframes stipulatedconsidering that the date proclaimed for the election was close; the issue of lack of resources andadequate funding was however, not taken into consideration although it should have been in order toensure an informed electorate.CCJP (2013) claimed that: “ZEC voter educators’ lacked entry strategies and some of them were seenjust waiting at public places and asking people whether they have identification documents, registeredas voters’ and whether they know how to vote” The ZEC voter educators who managed to callmeetings lacked group dynamics and community mobilisation skills resulting in a handful of peopleattending.To a lesser extent the issue of voters turned away in Gweru was not due to poor voter education thatwas imparted but a problem emanating from the inadequacy of complementary processes such as theinspection of the voters’ roll and voters’ registration exercises. According to the ZimbabweIndependent (10th of July 2013) ZESN called for the extension of the mobile voter registration by atleast a week after many potential voters failed to get registered and spent hours in queues especially inareas such as Phumelelo Primary School in Mkoba.International Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Studies48

Didmus Dewa & Tafadzwanashe Muchemwa11. VOTER TURNOUTELECTIONSMkobaGweru UrbanINGWERU URBAN200838%34%AND201353%52%MKOBA DURING% Improvement15%18%THE2008AND2013% range not voted47%-62%48%-66%Table above indicates that the eligible voters in Gweru District who did not participate in the 2008and 2013 elections are in the average range 47.5% to 64%. Over the years, voter turnout has slowlybeen decreasing: 94 per cent in 1980, 84 per cent in 1985, 47 per cent 1990 and 52 per cent in 2000despite the election witnessing an increased competition (ZESN, 2013:12). In view of the 2008 and2013 voter turnout it is e

The Voter Education “Ghost” in Zimbabwean Harmonised Elections of 2008 and 2013: What can be done? Case of Midlands, Gweru District International Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Studies 46 Table. Midlands Province 2013 Referendum results District Yes Votes No Votes

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