VZCZCXYZ2929
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHSB #0180/01 0661526
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 061526Z MAR 08
FM AMEMBASSY HARARE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2550
RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY COLLECTIVE
RUEHUJA/AMEMBASSY ABUJA 1865
RUEHAR/AMEMBASSY ACCRA 1800
RUEHDS/AMEMBASSY ADDIS ABABA 1925
RUEHRL/AMEMBASSY BERLIN 0504
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 1202
RUEHDK/AMEMBASSY DAKAR 1559
RUEHKM/AMEMBASSY KAMPALA 1981
RUEHNR/AMEMBASSY NAIROBI 4412
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC
RHMFISS/EUCOM POLAD VAIHINGEN GE
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 1052
RUFOADA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC

UNCLAS HARARE 000180 
 
SIPDIS 
 
AF/S FOR S.HILL 
ADDIS ABABA FOR USAU 
ADDIS ABABA FOR ACSS 
NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR B.PITTMAN 
TREASURY FOR J.RALYEA AND T.RAND 
STATE PASS TO USAID FOR L.DOBBINS AND E.LOKEN 
COMMERCE FOR BECKY ERKUL 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL ASEC ZI
 
SUBJECT:  Voter Registration: A Flawed Process 
 
 
------------ 
Introduction 
------------ 
¶1.  Newspapers and NGOs have reported in the last several weeks 
serious flaws in the Zimbabwean registration process which ended 
February 13.  Anecdotal evidence corroborates these reports. 
Problems include absence of names of registered voters on voter 
rolls, ghost voters appearing on the rolls, and refusal of election 
officials to register qualified voters. 
 
¶2.  Although the Zimbabwe Election Commission extended voter 
registration from February 7 to February 13 in order to accommodate 
the many people who had not managed to register to vote, this 
extension did not cure myriad problems existing in the registration 
process.  Embassy locally employed staff provided some anecdotes 
that illustrate the problems. 
 
------------------------------- 
Confusion over documentation 
and logistics for Registration 
------------------------------- 
 
¶3.  POL assistant, with her husband, visited their polling station 
in a low density suburb of Harare on February 4 to confirm that 
their names were on the ward voters roll.  The couple had voted in 
previous elections, and therefore their names should have been on 
the roll.  This was not the case and they had to reregister. 
Surprisingly, the names of the brothers of POL assistant's husband, 
who left the country in the 1990s, were both on the roll, although 
they had never registered to vote before leaving the country.  The 
couple pointed this fact out to the ZEC officials and was told that 
there was nothing that they could do to ensure that their relatives' 
names were deleted from the roll. 
 
¶4.  Re-registering was not an easy task for POL assistant and her 
husband.  They were asked to prove citizenship by producing their 
passports; election officials told them that their driver's licenses 
which have their national identity numbers were insufficient.  One 
of the officials admonished them not to complain; she had been 
"shouted at" the whole day by white people who claimed their names 
had been erroneously omitted from the roll since they had voted in 
previous elections.  POL assistant and her husband were not given 
any receipts for registration and instead were asked to return three 
days later to collect the receipts.  POL assistant returned to the 
polling center on Thursday February 7 to collect them, only to be 
told that she and her husband needed to submit further proof of 
residence.  After providing additional documentation, they received 
their receipts eight days after they had initially visited the 
center. 
 
 
 
--------------------------- 
Registering Turns into a 
Wild Goose Chase for Many 
--------------------------- 
 
¶5.  Before POL assistant and her husband left the polling station, 
another woman entered and complained that she had been sent to three 
different centers after being told at each place that she was in the 
wrong polling station.  She told the officials that she was not 
leaving until they had resolved the issue.  Ultimately, officials 
called one of the previous polling stations and told her to return 
there. 
 
--------------------------------- 
Other Anecdotal Information from 
Locally Employed Staff 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶6.  An Embassy household staff member who was born in Zimbabwe and 
had voted in the past was told he could not register to vote because 
he was not a citizen.  Election officials based this determination 
on the fact that his parents were born in Mozambique. He was asked 
to fill out an application for citizenship and told to go to the 
Registrar General's office to get his citizenship papers.  Of the 7 
other people in line to register, two others were also denied 
registration because of foreign parentage.  (Note: Last year, the 
Registrar General denied citizenship to Trevor Ncube, publisher of 
The Independent, because his parents had been born in Mozambique. 
The Zimbabwean High Court subsequently ruled that since Ncube was 
born in Zimbabwe, he was entitled to citizenship.  End Note.) 
 
------- 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶6.  Anecdotal evidence confirms the judgment of civil society 
organizations and the MDC that the registration process was 
seriously flawed.  It appears clear that numerous individuals, 
qualified to vote, were unable to register, particularly in urban 
areas.  In the absence of an audit, it is impossible to determine 
how many ghost voters are listed on the voter rolls. 
 
McGEE