Two elections began today in Zimbabwe. In rural areas where support for President Robert Mugabe is strongest, the voting went quickly and efficiently. But in the cities, where challenger Morgan Tsvangirai commands a majority, there was gridlock. Government election officials had halved the number of polling places in areas that supported the opposition Movement for Democratic Change in watershed parliamentary elections two years ago. They added rural voting sites, leaving the total number the same-4,500. On top of that, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) charged, election officials then staged a slowdown in opposition strongholds to hold down the anti-Mugabe vote. Government sources Mugabe is expected to argue that any problems in the cities were because ballots were crowded with municipal races as well as the presidential contest.
Whites also were targets. Mugabe, 78, has openly said he wants most of them to leave Zimbabwe, and they are assumed to support Tsvangirai. Thousands recently found their names struck from the voter roll, and they lost an appeal of that decision last Thursday. Others who should have been notified of the change didn’t find out until they arrived at the polls. Arthur Brenchley, 77, spent seven hours in line at Highlands Primary School, to find that for the first time in his 44 years in Zimbabwe he’s not allowed to vote. “I was told that I had renounced my citizenship, but it’s a bloody lie,” said the former Royal Air Force trainer. “Look-here’s my [national identity] card.”
A two-year government campaign of violence against opposition supporters has waned, but not entirely. Although western and African observers now are deployed throughout the country, the proceedings still seem more “flee in fear,” as a white farmer put it, than “free and fair.” As night fell on the first day of polling, four whites were reported killed in election violence, but there was no independent confirmation. In several rural constituencies, pro-Mugabe youth militias allegedly stoned and beat election observers to drive them away from the polling places. In at least one town, a youth militia abducted farm workers on the night before the polling, to subject them to a final political pep talk before driving them to polling places on farm trailers. The opposition plans to have volunteers accompany every ballot box to the main tabulation center in an effort to avoid fraud.
But the observering effort will fail if the opposition can’t get its ballots into the boxes. On the first day, at least, constricting the funnel seemed devastatingly effective. Once inside the classroom polling place, a voter first had to prove he or she hadn’t already voted, by passing a hand into an ultraviolet reader. That tripped up Alice Chanetsa, who had just stood in line for six hours. The machine found traces of ink on her hand. “It’s not fair,” she said as she left wondering whether the chemical may have been on metal poles and railings she touched during the wait.
Those who passed the test had another hurdle. A lone election worker pored painstakingly over the sole computer printout listing qualified voters. Elderly voters-most likely to support Mugabe, who brought black rule to Zimbabwe in 1980-were being ushered in through a side door. “Unless they extend, we won’t make it,” said Sidney Chitaka, 24, a printer who waited in line outside a polling place in the Mbare slum outside the capital. “We would be left without any choice-we wouldn’t be able to express our feelings.” The government could well bend. Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said that he may extend voting for another two days. But at Saturday’s pace, even that might not leave enough time for everybody to vote. Frustration could trigger a tragedy.
