US embassy cable - 05HARARE1146

C O N F I D E N T I A L HARARE 001146 
 
SIPDIS 
 
AF/S FOR B. NEULING 
NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR C. COURVILLE 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/31/2010 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, PHUM, ZI, MDC 
SUBJECT: MDC WINS BULAWAYO MAYORAL POLL 
 
 
Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Eric T. Schultz under Section 1.4 b/d 
 
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Election Results 
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1. (U) In an August 13 election, Bulawayo MDC Mayor Japhet 
Ndabeni-Ncube retained his mayoral seat over ZANU-PF 
challenger Dickson Solman Abu Basuthu by a margin of 29,575 
to 5,509.  Barely ten percent of Bulawayo,s 331,447 
registered voters cast ballots. 
 
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ZESN Observations 
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2.  (C) Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), Information 
Officer Ellen Kandororo told us on August 16 that ZESN had 
deployed 17 observers to cover the election.  She said they 
had reported a relatively high proportion of voters having 
been turned away, usually for being in the wrong ward. 
Kandororo criticized the GOZ and both parties for failing to 
conduct adequate voter education for the voters prior to the 
election.  She took each party to task further for the lack 
of interest each had shown in this election.  Kandororo said 
she ran into a high-ranking MDC official who was unaware of 
the fact that there was an election in Bulawayo during the 
weekend. 
 
3. (C) Kandororo said ZESN had enjoyed a good working 
relationship with GOZ officials throughout the election and 
commended the Election Supervisory Committee and the Zimbabwe 
Election Commission for their performance in Bulawayo. 
Kandororo reported further, however, that two months before 
the election ZESN had received a letter from the ZEC 
requesting information about all sources of its funding.  She 
noted that new prohibitions against foreign funding for voter 
education had prevented ZESN from conducting voter education 
in this election; the NGO is looking for local sponsors to 
support such efforts in the future. 
 
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Comment 
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4.  (C) This election result says less about the MDC,s 
stature than it does about Ndabeni-Ncube,s personal 
popularity in the city and the depth of Ndebele (Zimbabwe,s 
leading minority tribe, dominant in Matabeleland) resentment 
of the ruling party.  While ZANU-PF has shown itself capable 
of rigging municipal elections in the past, Bulawayo would 
have been a bridge too far for a party burdened by many other 
competing priorities.  In any event, ZANU-PF was reluctant to 
use resources for an election that it believed it would lose. 
 The GOZ will nonetheless continue at every turn to hamstring 
the city government,s capacity to deliver to constituencies 
and bring credit to the opposition.  The MDC leadership,s 
inattention to municipal governance, which the opposition 
controls in most of Zimbabwe,s urban areas, is a 
long-standing shortcoming. 
SCHULTZ