Robert Mugabe has set the date of March 31 for parliamentary elections that he has no intention of allowing to be remotely free or fair. The Zimbabwean President intends not merely to defeat but to “bury” the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the opposition party courageously led by Morgan Tsvangirai, a former union leader whom he tried and failed to get convicted of treason and now outlandishly accuses of being a Blair “puppet”.
So heavily have the electoral odds been stacked — even more shamelessly than they were in the rigged contests of 2000 and 2002 — that the MDC thought long and hard about a campaign boycott, before deciding to participate even at the risk of lending these elections a spurious legitimacy.
It is the right decision. A boycott would have allowed Zanu (PF) to sweep the field, gaining enough seats to change the Constitution, repealing the clause requiring speedy elections if the President dies or resigns. That would have handed Mr Mugabe what he wants, the elimination of the last obstacles to the perpetuation of his regime. But each MDC candidate, and each MDC voter, will be taking grave personal risks.
In theory these elections should be more open. Zimbabwe has accepted election rules agreed by all 14 nations of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). These include: no violence or intimidation, freedom of assembly, equal access to state media, independent electoral commissions, and vetting by SADC monitors.
The reality is, instead: such mortal fear of Zanu (PF)’s 50,000 youth militia and “veterans” squads that people dare not talk openly; a Public Order Security Act that bars free assembly; ruthlessly muzzled media and an “independent” electoral commission entirely appointed by Mr Mugabe. Zimbabwe should have invited in SADC monitors 90 days before the election; the SADC is still waiting.
Advertisement
In a country where perhaps half the people now go hungry, food aid will, as in the past, be used as a political weapon. Some three million Zimbabweans in exile have been denied the right to vote; and the electoral roll itself is a sick joke. It contains as many as 800,000 “dead souls” (unlikely to vote for the MDC) and double-enters at least 300,000 Zanu (PF) stalwarts.
Amazingly, Zimbabweans refuse to give up. For Valentine’s Day, an organisation called Women of Zimbabwe Arise handed out red roses and the slogan: “The power of love conquers the love of power”. Even for this, many were arrested. Archbishop Desmond Tutu is one of the few Africans to have spoken out against the regime their courage challenges, calling it a “huge blot” on Africa. For that, he was denounced by Mr Mugabe as a “vassal of imperialism” in thrall to the “false gods Bush and Blair”. Africa’s leaders are shamefully mute. They have made much of Nepad, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development that seeks yet more Western aid in exchange for political and economic reforms. Their silence in the face of Zimbabwe’s agony discredits their pledges and betrays their citizens’ hopes.