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A Dictators Guide To Rigging Elections Lessons Learned From Zimbabwes Puppet Master

The document summarizes an article about how President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe rigged the 2013 elections to maintain his decades-long hold on power. It outlines seven methods Mugabe used: beginning election fraud early, allowing superficial democratic reforms, controlling state media and courts, influencing the electoral commission, avoiding violence, declaring the people's support, and moving forward despite issues. The document also discusses how Mugabe manipulated the commission, controlled media coverage of the opposition, and had judges uphold his decisions. It concludes that Mugabe worked behind the scenes to ensure victory through corrupt means, threatening a return to human rights violations.

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Kepher Onuko
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129 views4 pages

A Dictators Guide To Rigging Elections Lessons Learned From Zimbabwes Puppet Master

The document summarizes an article about how President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe rigged the 2013 elections to maintain his decades-long hold on power. It outlines seven methods Mugabe used: beginning election fraud early, allowing superficial democratic reforms, controlling state media and courts, influencing the electoral commission, avoiding violence, declaring the people's support, and moving forward despite issues. The document also discusses how Mugabe manipulated the commission, controlled media coverage of the opposition, and had judges uphold his decisions. It concludes that Mugabe worked behind the scenes to ensure victory through corrupt means, threatening a return to human rights violations.

Uploaded by

Kepher Onuko
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Surname 1

Name

Professor

Class

Date

Performing Arts

“A Dictator’s Guide to Rigging Elections: Lessons Learned from Zimbabwe’s

Puppet Master” written by Jenai Cox Senior Program Officer, Africa

Synopsis of the Article

The author of this article is Jenai Cox, a Senior Program Officer of ‘Freedom House’: an

independent American based human rights watchdog with its offices in Zimbabwe. The article is

about President Robert Mugabe’s rigging styles. It gives a preview of seven stages that the

despot president capitalized on to win the 2013 elections in spite of the fact that he was very

unpopular with the electorate (Cox Web). This article highlights political corruption as a major

problem in Africa.

An Outline of the Article’s Main Points

The article asserts that President Mugabe perfected seven ways in which he rigged the

2013 elections to maintain his three decades strong hold on power. These are beginning the

election fraud early in advance, permitting shallow democratic reforms while keeping party

bigwigs out of the negotiating table, managing the state broadcasting stations and heaping the

courts with political appointees to uphold his constitutional decisions. The other methods

involved controlling the electoral commission to ensure that his win though rigged is believable,
Surname 2

steering clear of violence, proclaiming that the people have decided, and forging ahead (Cox

Web).

Discussion

In an effort to keep away from violence on the day of the election, it is believed that

Mugabe began election fraud even before the official date of the elections had been announced.

Upon ensuring his party had registered its voters, he unilaterally proclaimed the election date

without consultation as required by law. Out of all the reforms that brought in the power sharing

deal, Mugabe fulfilled only the bill of rights and thus was still able to engage in election

malpractice (Cox Web). He capitalized on this loophole because the other reforms had not been

enacted.

Prior to the elections, 90% of news channels highlighted the MDC in a negative

limelight, thereby, giving the opposition party a big blow. Behind the scene was Mugabe. In

May, a Mugabe supporter went to court to compel it to interpret the constitution on when the

elections should be held. The judge, believed to be a Mugabe political appointee, declared that

the vote would be held on May 31st just as Mugabe had announced (Cox Web).

The President out rightly stayed out of violence in the 2013 elections. Unknown by many,

he had already manipulated the rigging to win by a big margin. He did this through ensuring that

at the helm of the electoral commission were two close allies; the chairman who was formerly an

MP affiliated to his party and the Commission’s registrar, a man who had served him for the

three decades he had been in power (Cox Web).

The same pomp and celebration that graced his debut to power 33 years ago was

witnessed at his sixth inauguration ceremony. As much as the MDC tried to postpone the

inauguration through filing a petition in the courts, one of Mugabe’s political appointees threw
Surname 3

out case once again. Upon assuming office, Mugabe sacked all the MDC appointees and never

looked back (Cox Web).

Lessons From the article

I have learned that Mugabe perfected seven ways in which he rigged the 2013 May

elections. However, I have not learned how he rigged the 2008 elections. The writer should have

covered part of the 2008 rigged elections that led to violence and a final power sharing deal

between Mugabe and the MDC.

The Strengths and Weaknesses of the Article

The article draws its strength from the fact that it provides real evidence of the electoral

malpractice perfected by Mugabe prior to the 2013 elections. On the other hand the weakness of

the article stems from the fact that it does not substantiate about how the reforms were blocked.

This occurred because the MDC had many members in parliament compared to ZANU PF and

would have easily passed motions on reforms (Cox Web).

Conclusion

Political corruption is an enduring problem in Africa. This situation is exemplified by the

way President Mugabe leads his nation with impunity and corruption. It is true that Mugabe

worked behind the scenes to ensure that he won a sixth term as president on a silver platter. This

means that the country is likely to go back to the old days of human rights violations. The

western world has been blacklisted by Mugabe, who has since turned East to China. My opinion

is that the International Criminal court should keep a close eye on Zimbabwe with the objective

of persecuting Mugabe if he turns to his old ways of human rights violations.


Surname 4

Works Cited

Cox Jenai, A Dictator’s Guide to Rigging Elections: Lessons Learned from Zimbabwe’s Puppet

Master: Freedom House, Africa. 13th, November, 2013: Web.

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