Zimbabwe's 2023 election heist, a case of Forever Associates of Zimbabwe (FAZ)

 

By Youngerson Matete 

On the 23rd of August 2023, Zimbabwe is headed for polls which are meant to chose the President, members of parliament and local authorities who will serve the country for the next 5 years amid growing fears of another rigged elections. 

The fears have been ignited by the emergence of Forever Associates of Zimbabwe, a shadow group known as FAZ which is allegedly runned by the Central intelligence organisation (CIO) - a security organ that has direct and partisan links to the current government and the ZANU-PF party. The group has reportedly taken over the running of elections in Zimbabwe ahead of the August 2023 crunch polls.

Forever Associates of Zimbabwe claims to be a trust organisation that was initially formed in 2010 by students at Solusi University to promote the economic empowerment and integration of its members into the mainstream national economy by establishing and conducting businesses and facilitating their preferential access to opportunities, either as individuals or organised groups. The organization says that it aims to promote Zimbabwe’s economic development, socio-economic wellbeing and political stability by contributing to all programmes and processes that support the continuity of governance of the country by ZANU PF. 

The movement was initially hampered by internal squabbles which derailed their operations before being later relaunched in 2022 with the vision to create an economically empowered, fully integrated and politically conscious community of members; assured through continuance, in perpetuity, of ZANU PF’s revolutionary governance of Zimbabwe in line with the aspirations, gains and Ethos of the Liberation Struggle and it's mission being to organise its members to preferentially access opportunities for their economic empowerment, full integration into society and political consciousness; and to contribute, through active mobilisation aimed at winning the hearts and minds of the Electorate, to the continuance, in perpetuity, of the revolutionary governance of Zimbabwe by the ZANU PF Party.

The operations of Forever Associates of Zimbabwe came to light during the ZANU-PF primary candidates selection processes as it was tasked to manage the ZANU-PF internal processes which drew an outcry from some of the ZANU-PF members who bemoans the operations of Forever Associates of Zimbabwe. In the ZANU-PF internal polls close to 60% of sitting Members of parliament including big wigs were toppled in a process many accussed of being rigged.

Forever Associates of Zimbabwe went further to extend its operations into national electoral system amid growing fears and concerns that is has fully taken over the operations of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission sparking fears of vote rigging.

It is against this background that I seek to unpack the electoral heist being orchestrated by Forever Associates of Zimbabwe to rig the elections for the incumbent president and government. 

Creation of disorder and confusion within the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission.

Ahead of Zimbabwe's August 2023 general elections, there is a disorder and confusion that has all of a sudden gripped the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission. The commission is now operating in a chaotic mode. This has been evidence in the manner in which it handled the voter's roll inspection exercise. There were several situations where polling station centres had no voters roll for people to inspect their names. In other cases voter's roll at polling stations were swapped or rather some polling stations had wrong voter's rolls. 

Whilst this shows unpreparedness, chaos and disorder on the part of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, it also seems like a deliberate move to frustrate the people mostly in urban areas not to check their names on the voter's roll. This confusion was mainly faced in urban areas as the voters roll inspection exercise was smooth in rural areas as led by village headmens in what is known as "bereka mwana" or "sabhuku nevanhu vake" vote inspection. In simple terms, this is merely frog marching of rural folks by village heads to check their names on the voters roll or to register to vote. This tactic, has been and will most likely be used by ZANU-PF during polling day.

Suppressing national identity documents process in urban areas.

The Zimbabwean population continues to grow significantly, with young people having a huge demographic superiority of more than 67% of the total population. The 2018 elections study by several election watchdogs reveals that close to two million young people between the ages of 18 to 35 years did not register to vote owing to one reason or another. The Zimbabwe national statistics agency further claims that close to one million young people who were less than 18 years of age in 2018 would be eligible to vote in 2023. To put the figure of potential youth registrants to three million. 

It is not surprising that the preparations for the 2023 harmonized elections by political parties was and is centred on winning the youth vote. Huge numbers of those virgin voters are highly concentrated in urban areas - strongholds of the opposition - with relatively low numbers in rural areas where ZANU-PF enjoys huge support. In short, these young people pose an existential threat to the ruling party ZANU-PF.

The Covid-19 pandemic presented an opportunity for ZANU-PF as the country went on a full lock down. The civil registry department which is responsible for issuing national identity cards was closed and only opened for those who want to collect death certificates. This continued for the whole of 2020, 2021 and the first quarter of 2022 creating a national identity card crisis in the country as 3 out 5 young people who turned 18 by March 2022 had no national identity cards.

The government deliberately frustrated young people who wanted to acquire national identity cards in urban areas which is a prerequisite for one to register to vote whereas they were easily giving national identity cards to people in rural areas or those carrying letters from village headmens.

 The government rolled out a blitz to give national identity cards to cover for the period of the Covid-19 lock downs but the blitz in the urban areas was simply on paper because on the ground it was just chaotic and in some cases, centres not having basic things like ink to print or machines going down. There was no power backups at most centres and so many challenges in contrast to rural areas where the process was smooth. The national identity cards suppression was more pertinent in the Matebeleland region which might be a decisive region in the 2023 harmonized elections. ZANU-PF’s strategy was to make sure that the opposition can only have a super majority in Harare but limiting the Matebeleland influence by deliberately denying them national identity cards and a chance to vote.

Voter registration suppression

As indicated above, there was a potential of three million young people who are largely in urban areas who had a potential to register to vote ahead of the 2023 harmonized elections. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission in cohorts with the ruling ZANU-PF deliberately underregistered the urban population. The voter registration process was always slow, chaotic and frustrating in urban areas compared to rural areas thwarting the efforts of both civil society organizations and opposition political parties to mobilize young people to register to vote. 

There were also deliberately targeting Matebeleland region which will be a deciding region in the elections. There was a lot of chaos during the voter registration exercise mostly in Bulawayo. It is by design that Matebeleland region has the least number of registered voters. It was done to limit the region's influence in the upcoming elections. 

Refusal to avail the voter's roll.

Since 2022, several individuals, organisations and opposition political parties have been writing to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission requesting for an electronic voter's roll in terms of section 21(3) of the electoral act which stipulates that the commission upon requests must furnish those who requested the voters roll in a format which they have requested, that is, either a hard copy or an electronic copy.

Without any shame, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission made bizarre claims that they only have hard copies of the national voter's roll; this is, despite the fact that voter registration in Zimbabwe is electronic since the introduction of the Biometric Voter Register in 2016. A hard copy can only be obtained through a soft copy in such a scenario. 

The commission further cites security issues on their denial to give opposition and civil society groups an electronic voter's roll which is auditable and verifiable rather offering a hard copy which contains more than 187 000 copies with each copy coating US$D1. This means that for one to access it, he or she needs $USD187 000.00 and atleast two-64 tonne trucks to transport them with a huge storeroom to keep them safe; something that is not logical. This is despite the fact that the commission has been giving the ruling ZANU-PF party a voter's roll with not only faces of voters but with cell phone numbers as well which they have been sending bulky SMSs to soliciting for votes. If a voters roll is to be independently audited, ZANU-PF’s vote rigging strategy orchestrated by FAZ will be exposed as it contains ghost names, multiple entries and massive illegal transfer.

A member of parliament for Harare North Allan Makharm of the opposition citizens coalition for change and Project Vote 263, an election watchdog approached the courts to compel the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to release the voters roll. On the former, the high court ruled in favor of the commission and when the judgement was appealed to the supreme Court, it was dismissed on technical basis. Precisely, the supreme court dismissed the appeal on the basis that the high court judge didn't sign the judgement; a clear testament to the extent of the capture of our courts with the later applying for abeyance. The long and short of it is that the commission has denied political stakeholders their right to access the voter's roll on the orders of FAZ.

Massive transfers, removals of people on the voters roll and creation of a parallel voter's roll.

The recently ended voter inspection opened a can of worms. There was a massive movement of voters to polling stations which are far from where they are based without their consent despite the electoral act clearly stating that a voter can't be moved without his or her consent. Many opposition big wigs and sitting members of parliament were struggling to find their names on the voters roll. This problem was most prevalent in Matebeleland region as the ruling party ZANU-PF continues to target the region. A lot of ordinary voters have been either moved to a far polling station or have been totally removed from the register. 

This was first revealed by an audit which was done to the roll that was released by the commission in 2022 in preparation for the by-elections which were conducted in March 2022 by an electoral watchdog and data analyst group, "Team Pachedu." The audit revealed massive voter transfers in some cases husband and wife who share the same bed were placed in different wards despite sharing same address. The commission in their defence claimed that the opposition which had acquired the roll had done so unprocedurely and they had obtained a "wrong" voters roll. This reveals fears of parallel voter's rolls, the one that will be shown to observers which might likely show correct information and the one which will be used during elections which has a lot of irregularities. 

The transfer of voters was also not only done to frustrate opposition supporters but to weaken opposition candidates in certain constituencies which the ruling party is targeting. Through the forever Associates of Zimbabwe, ZANU-PF has moved also several of their supporters from near by villages to urban constituencies which they lost with a small margin. These voters which were moved were given non-existent addresses. 

Diffusing Matebeleland region electoral influence.

A closer analysis of the 2018 presidential results shows how Matebeleland as a region will have a deciding effect on the 2023 harmonized elections. According to the results announced by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, ZANU-PF’s Emmerson D Mnangagwa had a majority of 2,456,010 voters followed by the then MDC-A's Nelson Chamisa with 2,151,927 and a third distant Dr Tholozani Khupe who was the leader of a splinter MDC-t with 45,626 votes who have since joined forces with Nelson Chamisa in the newly formed citizen coalition for change (CCC). 

If you remove the Matebeleland region votes ZANU-PF’s Emmerson D Mnangagwa will be at 2177382 and Nelson Chamisa will be at 1779917 producing a difference of 397465. Since 2018, many people have registered to vote with Harare province leading with double figures compared to any province with the opposition poised to win atleast 60% of votes in Harare the only province they can win with a huge margin against ZANU-PF. The attention will quickly shift to Matebeleland provinces which, if they increase their figures, can boost their figures in Harare which already have more than a million registered voters. 

Strategically, if the opposition - who are more likely to go to polls without factions in Matebeleland region as in previous cases - increases their numbers in Matebeleland region they can stand a chance to win the majority of the presidential votes. To its strategy ZANU-PF had known this a long time, they made sure that the region will have less registered voters which they will use violence to intimidate revoking memories of Gukurahundi.

ZANU-PF will look to increase the gap in their strongholds while isolating the opposition’s Harare province's supper win. As the support of President Mnangagwa is hugely dwindling in Mashonaland provinces due to clansmanship kind of politics which saw only his tribesmen benefit from his rule much to the disgruntlement of Mashonaland region and the coming in of Savior Kasukuwere into the fray further complicating things for ZANU-PF, they will surely try to make sure that the opposition won't have huge margins in Matebeleland region.

Conclusion 

In conclusion, the forever Associates of Zimbabwe pauses an existential threat to Zimbabwe's electoral democracy. They are determined to rig elections in favor of the incumbent president and government and this is a worrisome development as Forever Associates of Zimbabwe has fully taken over the management of the elections. They have been moving and removing people from the voter register in opposition strongholds, causing delays to electoral processes in opposition strongholds. They will surely continue to undermine the electoral processes both during voting and election tabulation. Its more likely that opposition strongholds will not get voting material in time and numbers will be manipulated in favour of the ruling party ZANU-PF.

 

Youngerson Matete is a pro-democracy and Human Rights activist, a student of Political Science. He is the founder of Project Vote 263, a youth-led initiative to foster inclusive participatory democracy in Zimbabwe. He writes in his own capacity. His views doesn't not represents any organisation.

Cell : +263 773 622 044

Email: youngmatete0@gmail.com/ director@projectvote263.org.zw