VOA常速英语2008年-Zimbabwe Election Chaos Deepens

By Peta Thornycroft
06 February 2008

Political observers in Zimbabwe are charging new voting districts created by the government violate the country's constitution.  Peta Thornycroft reports for VOA that election experts say the government has failed to allow details of the new constituencies to be debated in parliament as required by the constitution. 

The Zimbabwe Elections Support Network says President Robert Mugabe violated the constitution in January by proclaiming elections and not allowing legislators to inspect or debate the new boundaries.  

The group says the constitution calls for legislators to approve or seek to change boundaries and to see that voter populations have been allocated¹ fairly.

The government has doubled the number of voting districts for the March 29 elections.  Zimbabweans will for the first time vote in presidential, parliamentary, senate and local government elections on the same day.

But there is still no map or even a description of the voting areas for the local government elections and neither candidates nor voters know where they will be able to cast their vote.

The Zimbabwe Elections Support Network says election authorities have made, what they describe as "a mockery" of new election laws that went into force in January. 

The group also says the government ran out of voter registration² materials and has failed to adequately let people know where and when they could register.  In apparent acknowledgment of election-preparation problems, the government has delayed the candidate filing deadline by more than a week, until February 15.

Analysts³ say the election preparations are chaotic⁴ because President Mugabe was determined⁵ to hold the polls in March and there was not enough time to introduce so many new laws and voting districts.

South African negotiators who facilitated eight months of negotiations⁶ between the ruling ZANU-PF and the opposition⁷ MDC failed to persuade President Mugabe to delay the elections until the new laws could be fully⁸ enforced. 

The Zimbabwe Elections Support Network says new electoral laws are being regularly broken.  One of them is a new media law that demands all contesting candidates and parties be given equal treatment by state owned media.

The Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe which closely monitors domestic media says in its weekly reports that the only daily newspapers, and the only radio and television stations in the country break the law every day.

Opposition parties say high candidate filing fees are hurting the opposition.  The 210 parliamentary candidates from each party, need two billion Zimbabwe dollars each.

Opposition election organizers say ruling ZANU-PF candidates have access to government cash, but people in Zimbabwe are only allowed to draw 500 million Zimbabwean dollars a day from their bank accounts.

1 allocated   

adj. 分配的 动词allocate的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The Ford Foundation allocated millions of dollars for cancer research. 福特基金会拨款数百万美元用于癌症研究。
• More funds will now be allocated to charitable organizations. 现在会拨更多的资金给慈善组织。

2 registration   

n.登记，注册，挂号

参考例句：

• Marriage without registration is not recognized by law.法律不承认未登记的婚姻。
• What's your registration number?你挂的是几号？

3 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

4 chaotic   

adj.混沌的，一片混乱的，一团糟的

参考例句：

• Things have been getting chaotic in the office recently.最近办公室的情况越来越乱了。
• The traffic in the city was chaotic.这城市的交通糟透了。

5 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

6 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。

7 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

8 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。