The Zimbabwean election has been a hotbed of intrigue and misinformation. One of the major perpetrators of the dirty tricks has been the U.S. Government, through people who have been sheltered  and protected in the embassy.

Last evening, ZANU-PF announced that it was taking the MDC to court. Two MDC guys were caught trying to bribe ZEC officials to produce favourable results to MDC. That is what the raids were about.

The main perpetrators of all the confusion were the representatives of the National Democratic Institute (NDI), an integral part of USAID. Several of the NDI officials (operating from within the US Embassy) were also arrested and handed to the US Embassy for immediate deportation. The NDI people were the source of most of the disinformation being circulated by email and SMS from within the US embassy. They circulated fake stories about attempted assassinations of Tsvangirai; fake press conference; fake election results; faked attacks on the populace. This NDI were the same ones who were doing all the dirty ops in Kenya after its election; the idea being to circulate false reports so as to agitate violence that would result in an international outcry in support of the opposition.

Even more bizarre, the UN OCHA representatives have been making claims that there was vote-rigging in the high-density suburbs among the people who were the victims of Operation Murambatsvina (Operation Drive Out Trash or Operation Drive Out Rubbish), also officially known as Operation Restore Order, a large scale Zimbabwean government campaign to forcibly clear slum areas across the country in 2005. The UN representatives cited voter role tampering in high density suburbs. They argued that the electoral roll contained the names of dead voters on empty stands not removed from the voters’ register. ZANU PF conceded that this was an anomaly on the voters roll, but since most of these dead voters, and empty stands were supposedly beneficiaries of UN OCHA plastic sheet housing, and voted MDC, their names and votes and should be stricken from the voters role immediately!!

The latest actual tally (which will be announced today)  ZANU- PF with 44. 6%, MDC 48.3 and the  balance to MDC Mutambara and Simba Makoni.

All the wild fantasies of Tsvangirai and his PR man, Biti, have discredited much of what the MDC says in the eyes of their own supporters who have slumped into a deep lethargy.

Africans should always be aware that the introduction of 'neutral observers' in their elections is not an altruistic pursuit. There are many governments and agencies who feel they have a stake in the results of these elections and have no compunction about telling lies and suborning violence to further their aims.

Perhaps the US will stop using its dirty tricks brigade in the upcoming runoff election.

Robot  # 1 | 22.09.2008 08:22

The Zimbabwean election has been a hotbed of intrigue and misinformation. One of the major perpetrators of the dirty tricks has been th...Read the full article.