There’s a always a need for fairness – Guest Blogger

Posted in Feya Feya electoral processes, Feya Feya Polls, Zimbabwe Elections 2013 by feyafeya

…there is always need for fairness – even armed combat has rules! Winning a fight through unfair ways will not earn you respect, or any legitimacy.
Let me give an example: an act like of furious Mike Tyson biting off a piece of Evander Holyfield’s ear in an old boxing match.
Let me ask you: If you would have no problem asking for ‘feya feya’ in an idle card game, from a soccer referee, or gambling with coin-money around street corners, what more in a national harmonized election?
After all, in life, fairness is all we want.
With these words, countrymen, let us have ‘feya feya’ elections!

We are thankful for the Zimbabweans that are speaking up, speaking out and speaking NOW on their desire for free and fair elections – you can read the entire blog on Elections: Zimbabwe, Let’s Embrace ‘Feya Feya’
Let’s make it Feya Feya – just free and fair!

Feya Feya is about saving ourselves

Posted in Feya Feya electoral processes, Zimbabwe Elections 2013 by feyafeya

I can not in all earnestness say that I have ever applied myself to imagining a better future for Zimbabwe. Partly because I am afraid to hope. Partly because I am afraid to care too much about it because caring would make me obligated to act. Caring would make me obligated to do something. Even a small thing. Partly because I didn’t know what to do. And even when others suggested what could be done and their suggestions were great – I let myself be smothered by the futility of trying to change things. Despair is easier than hope. Far more comfortable and far less risky.

A Zimbabwean blogger shares her fears of losing a country she loves if the next elections are not feya feya. Read more about it from her blogpost titled I have a country to lose.

Let’s make it feya feya – just free and fair!

3Jul2013

The perfect Feya Feya ingredients

Posted in Feya Feya electoral processes by feyafeya

Take your memories from the last election out of the oven and let them simmer for 5 minutes. Throw them in the bin.

Don’t over complicate the preparation: use 1 birth certificate to register, not the contents of your (and your landlord’s) entire life. Peel the skin off party politics and massage the real issues that face the country.

We get the perfect ingredients for free and fair elections – not from the Jamie Oliver cookbook – but from a witty Zimbabwean blogger who reckons that we should:

Heat up a pan and place the dreams of the average Zimbabwean in them. Remember where you come from.

Read more on this from the MasterChef himself via A recipe for free and fair elections found on the Kalabash website.

2Jul2013

ZEC, we demand feya feya treatment at registration centres – Guest Blogger

Posted in Uncategorized by feyafeya

I can’t say that I am surprised.

Saddened. Disappointed.

But I am not surprised that ZEC would turn away people who had spent five long hours waiting in queue to register to vote.

At 7pm, the ZEC official in charge of the process walked to the door and addressed at least 150 people waiting in the biting cold, told us that there wasn’t anything they could do for us and that we ought to try again tomorrow.

The person nearest to him was a mother with a baby strapped to her back.

The little girl had been wailing before and her mother had consoled her by telling her that it would soon be over.

And after five long hours, it wasn’t.

There was an angry outburst with people stating that they weren’t animals to be shooed away like that; some people just shrugged their shoulders, dejectedly stating,

If you don’t want us to vote, then we won’t.That’s what you want anyway.

And then the ZEC official shut the door on all the noise, leaving everyone out in the cold to nurse their frustrations.

But you know what?!

Frustration builds into resolve. Tears on the verge of being shed seep back within and become strength.

It’s taking ZEC at least an hour to register just 10 people.

You are meant to become frustrated, and therefore sulk off never to return to exercise a right which is not owned by ZEC or anyone else!

Manje, I am going back there tomorrow at 6 am, an hour before they open, and I am going to register!

I would advise you all to do the same.

2Jul2013

Feya Feya is protection of the voter…

Posted in Feya Feya electoral processes, Zimbabwe Elections 2013 by feyafeya

It’s good to know that members of the disciplined forces now have an opportunity to cast their votes in a secret environment because this means that they can vote for any party and person they wish.

The Feya Feya campaign is founded upon 11 Principles (Feya Feya 11) which will be revealed later in the week. Among the Feya Feya 11 is a demand that:

free formation of voter preferences [be allowed to] take place without cohesion, manipulation or intimidation and [ZEC must facilitate] the insulation of this choice through effective secrecy of the ballot.

No more fear for members of the disciplined forces…cast your ballots in SECRET!

It is commendable that ZEC has announced that July 14 and 15 has been set aside as dates for casting of the special vote.

In terms of Section 81C of the Electoral Act, Special Votes are cast by members of the disciplined forces who would be deployed to cover security matters on the day of actual voting by the general public.

What is significant and which is a departure from the past is that the people casting the special vote that is mainly Police and Soldiers will cast their vote into an UNMARKED envelope and deposit it to a ZEC presiding officer in the presence of candidates or Chief Elections agents and Poling agents of all political parties and Independent candidates interested to witness this process.

Let’s protect the voter (whether he/she is uniformed or not); let’s protect their vote through a secret ballot; let’s make it feya feya!

In the past Police and Soldiers would cast their votes in the presence of their seniors and this is no longer the case.

It is the Police and the soldiers (the majority of whom intend to see a ‘feya feya’ free and fair election) that made this submission during the seventh parliament and hence Parly responded by amending the Law, now its their turn to fully express themselves in secret and have their vote remaining a secret.

ZEC has advised that:

All Political parties and Stakeholders who intend to witness the process of special voting from sorting of ballots right up to allocation and counting can contact their nearest ZEC offices, those who want to be accredited as Observers for this process can visit ZEC sub office at Harare International Conference Centre beginning 1 July 2013.

Protect the VOTE. Protect the VOTER. Respect the outcome. Let’s make it feya feya – just free and fair!