And while Herredia is focussing on elections in Belize - his UDP colleague, Darrell Bradley was far afield - observing July 30th. elections in Zimbabwe. Bradley was called up as part of a Commonwealth Observer Mission that went to witness the first election in that country after Robert Mugabe was made to step down earlier this year.
Post-Mugabe Zimbabwe is trying to get out of a state of international isolation so they asked the Commonwealth Observers to come in. Bradley told us what he saw:..
Darrell Bradley, UDP Caretaker
"The people of Zimbabwe really came out in mass to really want to signal a new direction or a new change. It was very interesting, it was a new experience for me and I think this is something that the commonwealth really brings a lot of experience to at the end of the day we were able to observe quite a bit. We were given free access to the entire country, to speak to whomever we want. Certain interesting things occurred post-election so that you had several protest because the opposition did not readily accept the election results."
Jules Vasquez
"Were the elections free, fair and transparent?"
Darrell Bradley
"Well I wouldn't want to comment on that but the final report will be produced in sometime because it has to be collated. Things are ongoing in Zimbabwe because of course I indicated that the leader of the opposition had said he would launch an election petition so that maybe something that would be interesting. So within the context is very difficult for me to say because I don't want to prejudice the findings that will come out in the form of report. One of the things also that were interesting for me is to sort of compare notes to see what obtains in Belize vs our elections and then also what obtains there. One of the things that were equally concerned there and here is the extent to which money is involved in elections."
Jules Vasquez
"After the election the look of things has not been good."
Darrell Bradley
"The head of all the missions, the EU SADC other mission observing the elections had issued a statement which they called the use of force regrettable in the circumstances and they actually denounces the use of force in circumstances where you're having protest. In terms of the role of the observers we commented that it was a regrettable turn of events. I think that elections did in Zimbabwe was very impressive, it's not easy to mobilize 10 thousand polling stations. In some cases people slept at the polling station and I think that why we were concerned about the violence, there is still the hope there that Zimbabwe can turn it around because you see that the people really want that and there is an expression they want to be reengagement with the international community."
But while Bradley spent three weeks hobnobbing in Zimbabwe with international observers, he missed the start of re-registration, which is a critical period for any politician. But, as he reminded us, he' not your regular politico:…
Jules Vasquez
"Now we are engaging in a robust part of our process which is reregistration here in Belize. A critic might say weh you the do da Zimbabwe for 3 weeks, you need fi deh da Caribbean Shores reregistering people. You are the only candidate for Caribbean Shores, the only person who put in their name. The UDP needs you, weh you di do da Zimbabwe?"
Darrell Bradley
"That's true I will take that point, it is a critical time in relation to the months of July and August wanting to push a high amount of voter registration. One of the things that I will say though and this is a cop out, since I've been back I've had a few discussion with people who are part of my team and even when I was away we were in conversations almost daily in relations to the numbers and so forth. There does have to be though a level of interest on part of the individual. It's a situation where you have a reregistration exercise, you would turn out because it is good for your country not because of something you want - I want a job, I want this, that's actually very damaging for our electoral system. People expect the politician will go out and bring you to vote election day and to bring you to register and I think that is a failed system and the genesis of that is that it promotes a polarized society, it encourages corruption, it encourages apathy towards the political process and you've set a certain client kind of thing like you're bartering for votes which is not the situation.
"Some will say that I was away, I think it was for the greater good because you are also learning in terms of an electoral process but I would prescribe myself as a technocrat in terms of how I see politics. You never see me on the street in terms of that kind of elector cajoling and so forth because I think that's very unhelpful and in some cases to the betterment and also to my detriment because I lost in Caribbean Shores. Perhaps maybe if I was more of that street kind of person in terms of walking about and doing that kind of politicking, maybe that 50 votes that I lost by would have been not and you would have interviewed me in Belmopan."
And, speaking about re-registration, Bradley touched a political third rail - which is the vast disparity in the numbers of voters across divisions. The constitution says these should be proportional, but the political directorate likes to keep power concentrated in the city. Bradley said, it's just plain wrong:..
Darrell Bradley
"You must have a situation where all constituencies have nearly the same amount of voters and that is a situation why there has to be - people don't know why these things are in law you know, there is a reason why there is regular reregistration exercise, why you can't wait 20 years to do because when you wait 20 years, you find all of these anomalies. You have areas in Cayo or down south which has 6 thousand, 7 thousand; 9 thousand people and then you have areas in Belize City which only have 3 thousand. So what that does that it actually skews the political process meaning that Belize City is artificially more politically powerful - that is unconstitutional and those things have to be addressed. There's a reason why the constitution previously prescribed this to be done at shorter intervals so that you correct those anomalies and I don't necessarily know when that will be done but those are serious issues which affect our election results."
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