Zim prints extra ballot papers

HARARE – The opposition on Sunday accused Zimbabwe’s authorities of printing millions of surplus ballot papers, raising the risk of vote-rigging in next week’s presidential and legislative elections.

Tendai Biti, secretary-general of the Movement for Democratic Change, said leaked documents from the government’s security printers showed nine million ballot papers were ordered for the 5.9 million people registered to vote on Saturday. Correspondence supplied from Fidelity Printers, producers of the nation’s bank notes, also showed 600 000 postal ballot papers were requisitioned for a few thousand soldiers, police and civil servants away from their home districts and for diplomats and their families abroad, he said.At least four million Zimbabweans living abroad, mostly fugitives from the nation’s economic meltdown and political exiles, were not permitted to vote by mail – itself a subject of dispute between the government and its opponents.Opposition groups had also protested over last-minute changes to voting procedures allowing police a supervisory role inside polling stations.The independent Zimbabwe Election Support Network said the police presence intimidated voters and it was investigating proposed alterations to vote-counting and verification arrangements at polling stations.The head of the Electoral Commission, Judge George Chiweshe, had not yet responded to the opposition allegations.Biti, a parliamentarian and senior attorney, said existing electoral laws were being abused and African monitors had done little to reassure Mugabe’s opponents that accepted voting procedures were not being encroached upon by the state.Western nations had been barred from sending observer delegations by Mugabe.Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, 55, and former finance minister and ruling party loyalist Simba Makoni, 57, reported a groundswell of opinion blaming Mugabe for the acute shortages of food, gasoline and most goods.Nampa-APCorrespondence supplied from Fidelity Printers, producers of the nation’s bank notes, also showed 600 000 postal ballot papers were requisitioned for a few thousand soldiers, police and civil servants away from their home districts and for diplomats and their families abroad, he said.At least four million Zimbabweans living abroad, mostly fugitives from the nation’s economic meltdown and political exiles, were not permitted to vote by mail – itself a subject of dispute between the government and its opponents.Opposition groups had also protested over last-minute changes to voting procedures allowing police a supervisory role inside polling stations.The independent Zimbabwe Election Support Network said the police presence intimidated voters and it was investigating proposed alterations to vote-counting and verification arrangements at polling stations.The head of the Electoral Commission, Judge George Chiweshe, had not yet responded to the opposition allegations.Biti, a parliamentarian and senior attorney, said existing electoral laws were being abused and African monitors had done little to reassure Mugabe’s opponents that accepted voting procedures were not being encroached upon by the state.Western nations had been barred from sending observer delegations by Mugabe.Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, 55, and former finance minister and ruling party loyalist Simba Makoni, 57, reported a groundswell of opinion blaming Mugabe for the acute shortages of food, gasoline and most goods.Nampa-AP