Harare, Zimbabwe
A battered peace holds on the streets and townships of Harare on poll day. After months of virulent political campaigning the streets have fallen silent; there are few cars on the road and the giant minibus station in the bustling Mbare township is empty.
Polling stations – giant, white, marquee-like tents – have been set up in some areas more than others. I counted eleven such stations, with short queues snaking in the midday sun, within a square mile of Mbare alone. Next door in Highfield, Harare’s east, I found one. A local journalist said that Zanu has been concentrating on areas where it can pick up votes. “They can intimidate people here; remember this area was hit hardest when the government went on their slum cleareance [“Operation Clear out the Trash”] two years ago,” he said, pointing to a litter-strewn field outside dilapidated low-rise apartment blocks. “People used to live in this field, they built huts; they are long gone, but those who stayed might have learnt their lesson.”
Turnout is visibly low. A colleague points out there are enough voters to give the impression of functioning democracy to bored-looking observers from the South African Development Community (SADC), standing idly by their Toyota 4x4s.
Some construction workers in Highfield were sitting on the roadside pavement hawking bricks for a Z$1 bn each. “Better buy now one, it will be Z$2 bn by next Wednesday”, one of them advised. Conspicuously, their fingers were free of the red ink that stains the hands of voters. They explained that there was no point since their candidate – MDC opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai – had boycotted today’s poll. The public holiday, declared by president Robert Mugabe on Wednesday, has been harsh on the boys’ business. All the shops are closed and they don’t have money to buy maize-brew at the local beer hall. “I am a billionaire but can buy nothing with it,” lamented one.
For Harare’s wealthier denizens, election day means hunkering down in luxurious, gated bunkers, swimming in the pool and inviting friends over to braai – barbeque – filet beef bought from South Africa. “We lay low,” said one woman in the wealthy Gunhill neighbourhood,. “And enjoy the sunshine”.
Zimbabwe’s internal election monitors are also enjoying the sunshine. Members of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), the country’s civil society poll-watchdog, also announced a boycott. With over 8000 members in the March 29 poll, their monitoring was key to ensuring results were counted independently – handing the MDC a deserved victory in the process. With Tsvangirai holed up in the Dutch embassy, the stakes are higher now. When ZESN reapplied for electoral accreditation, Zimbabwe’s notoriously caustic justice minister Patrick Chinamasa said only 500 observers would be allowed. When asked to justify this volte-face Chinamasa replied that too many observers might “disrupt the smooth running of the electoral process”. Cynics countered it might have something to do with rigging.
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