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afrol News, 10 March - On the second day of the Zimbabwean presidential elections, voters continue to flock to the polling stations. While opinion polls had indicated the Zimbabwean electorate was scared into silence, voters' turnout indicates they now will have their saying. Turnout is reported to be high both in rural and urban areas. Especially in the capital, Harare, some polling queues began to form in the middle of the night. People had been alarmed by reports poll stations in urban areas, where opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai finds his strongest support, would be understaffed. Reports from Harare indeed confirmed the voting process was extremely slow; at some polling stations as few as 60 people an hour are able to vote. Tobiwa Mudede, the Zimbabwean Registrar General of Elections, thus issued a statement yesterday evening ordering that "voters already in the queue by 1900 hours will be allowed to vote and polling stations will not close until they are cleared," even if it would take hours to let the queues through the polling process. Meanwhile steps were being taken "to increase manpower and the number of polling booths especially in Harare and Chitungwiza," Mudede assured. According to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the slow procedure of the elections in urban areas were a direct consequence of decisions by the government party, ZANU-PF, to discourage Harare voters by long queues, "by ensuring that the voting process in MDC strongholds is slowed down." The MDC claims it has "information that the Registrar General has deliberately given instructions to presiding officers in urban constituencies to slow down the voting process." Indeed, the ZANU-PF government had slashed the number of polling stations in urban centers and increased them in rural areas. For instance Harare East Constituency had 22 polling stations in the June 2000 legislative elections. Now it only has 10 polling stations. Harare citizens however seemed determined to cast their vote. Outside Harare, where violence and intimidation was the rule in the 2000 elections, this year's vote seems somewhat quieter. The MDC however reported several "disturbing developments". The opposition party said it did not have polling agents in at least 52 percent of the rural polling stations. "ZANU-PF militias camped at bases, which are adjacent to the polling stations, attacked most of them in broad daylight," MDC spokesman Learnmore Jongwe stated. The most affected polling stations are in the three Mashonaland Provinces (Masvingo, Midlands and Manicaland), Jongwe informed.
President Robert Mugabe cast his vote in the Harare townships of Highfields where he predicted victory. Mugabe has been in office since independence from Britain in 1980. Tsvangirai, a former trade union leader now challenging Mugabe, was to cast his vote in Harare today - to coincide with his 50th birthday. Mugabe today said he saw no reason why he should not accept the election result "because I will have won." Speculations about what would happen if Tsvangirai looses - ranging from the Madagascar example to an MDC-aided British invasion - were rejected by the MDC leader today. On the case of a rigged election, Tsvangirai however stuck to his indications there could be a popular rising; "The people know what to do in the event the election is stolen," he said, without elaborating. On the political aspect, the Zimbabwean presidential elections are mainly a choice between Mugabe's land reform promises against Tsvangirai's promises he will create jobs and rebuild the economy. The questions that however dominate the election are human rights and international relations, as Mugabe's increasingly harsh governing style has infringed on basic rights, which in turn has led to a growing international isolation. Tsvangirai is expected to have gained votes on the economic collapse of the country, producing high unemployment, food shortages and rising prices. The MDC blames this on Mugabe's misrule and the badly managed land reform, crippling agricultural production. Mugabe, on the other hand, has the sympathy of rural families hoping to regain the lands their ancestors lost to white settlers. Mugabe's role in the liberation war of the 1970s also gives credibility to his black-nationalist rhetoric. According to opinion polls, Tsvangirai seems to have a lead on Mugabe. There were however many uncertainties attached to these polls.
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