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_WORLD WATCH______________________________
________________Zimbabwe_______________
No independent voter education
Government defends its monopoly
Zimbabwe’s government has announced that it will ban non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from conducting voter-education projects before the presidential election scheduled for next year.
Information Minister Jonathan Moyo said the government would bar churches, aid agencies, and civic organization from voter-education activities, allowing only the government-appointed Electoral Supervisory Commission (ESC) and political parties to conduct such work. He said the NGOs were using foreign money to campaign for certain political parties, despite their claims of neutrality.
“Some churches have also joined the fray, invoking the name of God, making God partisan and turning the Bible into a political manifesto, using foreign money to subvert our hard-won independence under the guise of voter education,” Moyo told the state-run Sunday Mail newspaper.
The Zimbabwe Human Rights Association, the Zimbabwe Council of Churches, the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, and the Legal Resources Foundation had been preparing to embark on a coordinated voter-education campaign to acquaint people with their voting rights ahead of the mayoral, parliamentary, and presidential elections set for April next year. The same groups conducted voter education campaigns prior to the parliamentary election in June 2000.
Moyo said, “If voter education is about neutral information which affects who governs us, why should it be done by every Tom and Dick? Is there anyone who believes Pius Ncube (the Catholic archbishop of Bulawayo) can give neutral voter information?” Archbishop Ncube has been a vocal critic of the government, especially regarding illegal land seizures by allies of the ruling Zanu PF party. The archbishop is among the nine Catholic bishops who in May issued a pastoral letter criticizing political violence and accusing President Robert Mugabe’s government of turning a blind eye to the illegal activities of those involved in the land grabs and intimidation of opponents.
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