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Women cast their vote in the presidential and parliamentary elections in Harare today. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)
CRISIS-WEARY ZIMBABWEANS ARE voting today in a fiercely contested election dominated by veteran President Robert Mugabe’s bid to extend his 33-year rule and suspicions of vote rigging.
The 89-year-old firebrand, Africa’s oldest leader, is running for office for the seventh and perhaps final time, after a series of violent crackdowns, economic crises and suspect elections.
But on the eve of the vote, Mugabe vowed to step down if he lost and claimed the army — long the bulwark of his rule — would also respect a victory for Morgan Tsvangirai, his perennial rival and reluctant partner in an uneasy coalition for the past four years.
“If you lose you must surrender,” the 89-year-old said, insisting: “We have done no cheating.”
The United States however, voiced concern about the way the vote would be run and Tsvangirai, who was forced out of the race in 2008 after 200 of his supporters were killed, told CNN he took Mugabe’s promise “with a pinch of salt”.
People queue to cast their vote in Harare (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)
Voters, some wrapped in blankets on a cold winter morning, started queuing at least four hours before polling stations opened and voting appeared to be brisk in many urban areas, which have traditionally recorded strong support for Tsvangirai.
“I am happy to have cast my vote. I just want an end to the problems in our country,” said 66-year-old Ellen Zhakata as she voted in a Harare township.
All my children are outside the country because of the economic troubles here. I am so lonely. How I wish they could be working here.
Millions of Zimbabwean were forced to migrate to find work elsewhere after an economic crisis which was exacerbated by the violence-marred 2008 elections.
More than 100,000 people aged over 100
While this year’s campaign has seen little of the bloodshed of 2008, Tsvangirai, a 61-year-old former trade union leader, has raised alarm bells about fraud.
An anti-Mugabe poster at a Movement for Democratic Change election rally. (AP Photo)
His Movement for Democratic Change on Tuesday handed what it claimed was documentary evidence of plans to rig the election to observers from the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
The dossier, which an SADC observer said raised serious questions, listed examples of duplicate or questionable voters gleaned from a initial examination of the electoral roll.
In June, the non-governmental Research and Advocacy Unit said after examining an incomplete roll that it included a million dead voters or emigres, as well as over 100,000 people who were more than 100 years old.
“We have seen a lot of duplicate names in the roll, where you see somebody is registered twice, same date of birth, same physical address but with a slight difference in their ID number,” junior minister Jameson Timba told AFP.
People wait to cast their votes in Harare today (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)
At the US State Department, spokeswoman Jen Psaki expressed Washington’s doubts about the way the vote would be run.
“We do remain concerned about the lack of transparency in electoral preparations by continued partisan behaviour, by state security institutions, and by the technical and logistical issues hampering the administration of a credible and transparent election,” she said.
Confidence
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission was ordered on Tuesday to fully publish the roll by 10:00 GMT Wednesday, leaving little time to correct problems.
An election official outside a polling booth in Mbare, Harare today. (AP Photo)
Commission chief Rita Makarau said the delayed access to the roll had affected all parties equally.
“It has not affected one political party, so in a way it remains unfair to all political players,” she said.
Some 6.4 million people, around half of the population, are eligible to vote.
A candidate needs 50 per cent of the vote to avoid a run-off and both Mugabe and Tsvangirai appear confident.
A woman voter is brought to a polling station in Mbare early today (AP Photo)
Mugabe has focused his campaign on bashing homosexuals and on promises to widen the redistribution of wealth to poor black Zimbabweans.
Amid recovery from an economic crisis that saw mass unemployment and galloping inflation, Mugabe loyalists insist their hero is “tried and tested”.
Opinion poll
Credible opinion polls are rare, but according to one survey by the US-based Williams firm in March-April, Mugabe could be in for a rough ride.
In a survey of 800 Zimbabweans, 61 per cent said they had a favourable view of the MDC compared with 27 percent for Mugabe’s ZANU-PF.
Voters queue in the early hours of this morning in Mbare to cast their vote (AP Photo)
The poll showed Tsvangirai leading in seven of 10 provinces and that only 34 percent of those who voted for Mugabe in 2008 back him this time around.
Tsvangirai hopes his plans to lure back foreign investors, create a million jobs in five years and improve public services will deliver a long-awaited victory.
Polling stations close at 1700 GMT and final results are expected with five days.
Ill bet anyone a tenner Mugabe wins
I hope and keep my fingers crossed Mugabe is booted out. I feel so sorry for everyone one of those citizens who had to live the last 33 years under that HORRIBLE EVIL GREEDY SADISTIC man.
I work in party political assistance in Botswana and South Africa where there are lots of Zimbabweans- I have never met a single one, of any political persuasion that thinks he is anything but a crook, a despot and a charlatan of the highest order.
The woman on the left in the first picture is holding two pieces of paper. One white and one yellow. Please tell me the candidates voting cards are not different colours. Hmmm.
The caption under the picture says they have parliamentary and presidential elections today. We do the same here – whenever we vote for the European Parliament we also vote for local councils and maybe a bi election here and there, different colour ballots for each election.
Not a snowball in Hell’s chance of this despot relinquishing power. The scandal of his being in power so long is all the greater because the World’s Western powers see no gain for themselves in helping to oust him.
We can only hope.
As tragic as it is I feel people in the west would still have a problem getting involved in this countries affairs.
And if they did intervene we’d have the whole lot sold to Monsanto to pay for the cost of ‘liberation’. They have a democratic system even if it’s corrupt, hopefully they can make the changes they need to make to fix their broken country.
But he promised he would step down if he lost. If we can’t trust a promise from Robert Mugabe then what can we trust?
Are they small wheelie bins they are putting their vote into. Bin collectors will be around in the evening to bring them to the dump.
Aaaaand… It’s Mugabe! with 100% of the votes!
Mugabe must be doing something right if 100,000 of the voter’s have survived over 100 years of age. Proof is in the figures and figures don’t lie.
When they’re done, can SADC come and have a look at the Irish electoral roll?
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