Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
03HARARE2332
2003-12-02 15:25:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Harare
Cable title:  

ZANU-PF TAKES PARLIAMENTARY SEAT FROM MDC - TWO

Tags:  PGOV PHUM PINR ZI MDC ZANU PF 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 HARARE 002332 

SIPDIS

NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR J. FRAZER, D. TEITELBAUM
LONDON FOR C. GURNEY
PARIS FOR C. NEARY
NAIROBI FOR T. PFLAUMER

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/31/2013
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PINR ZI MDC ZANU PF
SUBJECT: ZANU-PF TAKES PARLIAMENTARY SEAT FROM MDC - TWO
THIRDS MAJORITY STILL ELUSIVE

REF: HARARE 2179

Classified By: Political Officer Audu Besmer for reasons 1.5 b/d

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 HARARE 002332

SIPDIS

NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR J. FRAZER, D. TEITELBAUM
LONDON FOR C. GURNEY
PARIS FOR C. NEARY
NAIROBI FOR T. PFLAUMER

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/31/2013
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PINR ZI MDC ZANU PF
SUBJECT: ZANU-PF TAKES PARLIAMENTARY SEAT FROM MDC - TWO
THIRDS MAJORITY STILL ELUSIVE

REF: HARARE 2179

Classified By: Political Officer Audu Besmer for reasons 1.5 b/d


1. (C) SUMMARY: ZANU-PF took a parliamentary seat from the
MDC in a by-election held on November 29 - 30 in Kadoma
Central. Neither candidate articulated a campaign message in
interviews with poloff who visited the area the day before
voting began. The MDC candidate alleged intimidation and
voting irregularities but a larger factor was probably the
difficulty of finding a credible candidate, and organizing
and mobilizing effectively in the midst of ZANU-PF's
Mashonaland heartland. ZANU-PF still needs four more seats
to obtain a two-thirds parliamentary majority. END SUMMARY.

Voting Days
--------------


2. (C) On December 1, MDC candidate Charles Mupandawana
reported to poloff that " Ishmael Tichafa Mutema, the ZANU-PF
candidate had won the poll with 9,282 votes to Mupandawana's
6,038. Mupandawana was present for the entire counting
session and said the counting process was transparent. He
attributed his failure to win the seat to three factors: 1)
intimidation, 2) insufficient resources, and 3) a lack of
persistence among his supporters, i.e. when they were turned
away inappropriately at one polling station they gave up
rather than trying to vote at a different location.


3. (U) Mupandawana claimed in a press interview that war
veterans had fired shots into the air near one polling
station on November 29 to scare away potential opposition
voters. Thomas Bvuma, Spokesperson for the Electoral
Supervisory Commission (ESC),denied that any shots had been
fired, and said voting proceeded peacefully on both days.


4. (C) There was also an election for one rural district
council seat in Nkayi. Preliminary results from Harare MDC
MP Trudy Stevenson were that the MDC won the seat; however,
final voting counts are unavailable.

MDC Candidate a Political Freshman

--------------


5. (C) Poloff was supposed to meet with Mupandawana, a
secondary school teacher living in Harare and a political
freshman contesting his late father's seat, on November 28 at
Mupandawana's Kadoma home and MDC campaign command center;
however, Mupandawana failed to arrive. Other campaign
officials said Mupandawana was otherwise engaged or groggy;
during an hour-long meeting with his campaign staff, the
candidate remained consistently "10-minutes away from
arriving". Members of Mupandawana's campaign team included
MDC Mashonaland West Provincial Chairman Isaac Muzimba,
Provincial Vice-Chair Charles Sibanda, Provincial Secretary
Edgar Sithole and other officials. About 50 MDC youths
appeared to be camped out outside Mupandawana's 4-bedroom
family home near a nickel refinery just outside Kadoma.


6. (C) Sibanda and Sithole described various problems they
had in the run-up to these elections. On October 28 at the
nomination court police officers blocked Mupandawana from
entering. MDC officials had anticipated this problem and had
submitted the appropriate paperwork the previous day. At the
nomination court, Sithole claimed ZANU-PF youths stoned and
egged MDC members. Mupandawana said that he was nominated to
be candidate after a meeting and voting process in which MDC
regular, women's and youth wings from each of Kadoma's 16
wards proposed names and voted as wings on who would be the
candidate for the district. This is in contrast to ZANU-PF
candidates, who Mupandawana said are selected directly by the
membership.


7. (C) According to Mupandawana's campaign staff, ZANU-PF
youths had camped out near the Mupandawana command center and
on November 26 threw stones toward the house, injuring some
MDC youths and damaging property. Police arrived and
arrested some 33 MDC members, including Mupandawana's
campaign manager. On November 27 police arrested six other
MDC members during a similar incident. Sibanda complained
that 16 of their necessary 21 polling agents were among those
arrested and still detained on November 28--the day before
voting was to begin. Sibanda said that the MDC usually
prepares 2-3 extra polling agents for each polling station in
case of arrests, but the secondary polling agents were not
fully trained.

8. (C) Sithole said that four of Kadoma's 21 polling stations
would be "mobile", servicing areas recently resettled under
the government's land reform program. MDC officials
anticipated that ZANU-PF would bus in extra voters from
outside the district and make fraudulent additions to the
voter's roll.


9. (C) Sibanda said they tried to hold a rally on November
22, but police canceled it because ZANU-PF booked the same
venue at the same time--and then failed to hold an event.

10. (C) Sibanda and Sithole said that although Mupandawana's
father had won the 2000 election for this seat with 14,000
votes to the ZANU-PF candidate's 5,000, voter apathy in the
face of intimidation was their biggest enemy and could cause
them to lose this time around. (Note. In August 2002 Kadoma
elected a ZANU-PF Mayor, and in August 2003 a 16-member
ZANU-PF city council. End Note.)

Beer with War Vets - Reality TV Zimbabwean Style
-------------- ---


11. (C) Ishmael Tichafa Mutema, the ZANU-PF candidate, war
veteran leader of mine invasions in Kadoma, and former
Central Intelligence Office Presidential Guard member arrived
1.5 hours late to a lunch meeting he requested with poloff.
Poloff joined Mutema over a few rounds of beer in a
conversation with seven other campaign staffers in military
drab. Soon after poloff sat down, a man with a video camera
started filming the group and was introduced as a Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) reporter. Mutema made
accusations that U.S. sanctions were hurting ordinary
Zimbabweans, and that the U.S. was no longer helping the
people of Zimbabwe but instead was funding the MDC. The
cameraman panned around the group and when it reached Mutema,
the candidate launched into minutes long monologues
condemning the violence perpetrated by the MDC during the
campaign, noting that ZANU-PF would trust the police to
maintain law and order, and saying that his victory was a
forgone conclusion. Mutema had no responses to poloff's
queries about a campaign message or programs or projects he
planned for Kadoma.

ZANU-PF Mayor Open to Dialogue
--------------


12. (C) On November 28 poloff also had a very cordial meeting
with the ZANU-PF Mayor of Kadoma Phanuel Phiri, and the Town
Clerk Malachia Chidimu. Phiri described Kadoma's financial
woes where inflation made the value of the town budget shrink
monthly, but where unemployment from mine closures was
widespread, and Phiri could not raise taxes to keep up. He
said the town desperately needed new water pumps but he was
instead spending scarce resources just maintaining the town's
old systems. In years past Phiri said the town received
funds from the GOZ for schools, health clinics and roads, but
those had not been forthcoming for the past 3-4 years. As
head of the Urban Council's Association, Phiri said the GOZ
was continuing to support rural councils financially, but not
urban ones like Kadoma.


13. (C) Phiri said ZANU-PF had just completed its
restructuring exercise in Mashonaland West in preparation for
the annual party conference. He said Kadoma hoped to send
some 48 representatives to the conference, contingent on
resources.


14. (C) Phiri and Chidimu expressed interest in soliciting
funds from the USG to assist specifically with the water
pumps problem. They noted that their inquiries to
U.S.-funded organizations to do projects in Kadoma had gone
nowhere, they sensed because they were ZANU-PF members. They
noted that differences between the USG and GOZ were hurting
ordinary Zimbabweans and hoped the situation would not
continue indefinitely.

Comment
--------------


15. (C) In many ways this was a very typical Zimbabwean
election. The ZANU-PF candidate was a war veteran who
benefited from intimidation and possible improper
manipulations. He had no campaign message to speak of other
than calling for unity with the MDC, and claiming to have won
the poll before voting began. The MDC candidate was a
27-year old political freshman who claimed widespread popular
support but alleged that intimidation, lack of resources, and
lack of popular fighting spirit kept him from actually
winning the election. He had no apparent campaign message.


16. (C) Although MDC officials have previously said that they
needed to improve the vetting process for their candidates
(Ref),the party faces an uphill battle as few charismatic,
savvy and capable people would want to give up whatever
successes they currently have to face the threats,
intimidation and possibly worse, of an MDC campaign and
public office.


17. (C) While this was previously an MDC seat, ZANU-PF still
needs four more seats to obtain a two-thirds parliamentary
majority. There are currently two more seats vacant, but no
election date has been set for either one. Gutu North fell
vacant with the death of Vice-President Simon Muzenda, and
Zengeza (near Harare) has been unfilled since November 2002,
when MDC MP Tafadzwa Musekiwa moved to the U.K. and was
granted asylum. So far, the MDC has blocked the
Parliamentary Speaker from declaring the Zengeza seat vacant.
It would also seem in the interest of the ruling party to
keep the seat unfilled because it would be very expensive and
controversial for the ZANU-PF to mount a successful campaign
in an urban high-density suburb, traditionally a stronghold
for the MDC.
SULLIVAN