Critics raise fears of rigging ahead of vote
HARARE: Supporters of veteran President Robert Mugabe voiced confidence that his 33-year-rule will be extended today, when Zimbabweans vote in elections that many opponents fear will be rigged.
Around 6.4 million people are eligible to cast their ballots in the first round of presidential and parliamentary elections that are probably the 89-year-old’s last.
Mr Mugabe has become an international pariah thanks to a series of bloody and flawed elections that have kept him in power since independence from Britain in 1980.
The last presidential vote in 2008 was marred by bloodshed, which forced now Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai out of the race despite a first round win.
Mr Tsvangirai, a 61-year-old former trade unionist, will face Mr Mugabe again this time, ending four years of uneasy government cohabitation urged by the international community.
Amid recovery from an economic crisis that saw mass unemployment some of the highest rates of inflation ever recorded, Mugabe loyalists insist their independence hero is ‘‘tried and tested’’.
‘‘We have won already. It’s a walkover,’’ said Jestara Mziwanda, a supporter of Mugabe’s ZANU-PF.
‘‘This year nobody was beaten, or forced to attend any meeting, but the numbers of people at rallies say it all.’’
The run-up to this year’s vote has seen little of the violence that marred previous polls, but Mr Mugabe’s opponents point to a more subtle form of manipulation. With less than 24 hours before polls open, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission had yet to provide Mr Tsvangarai’s party or non-governmental groups with a list of eligible voters.
‘‘Interested parties have not seen a consolidated voters roll, in violation of the law,’’ said Irene Petras, director of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights.
In June, the Research and Advocacy Unit, a non-government group, reported that the roll included one million dead voters or people who have emigrated, as well as over 100,000 people aged over 100 years old. By yesterday morning, opposition senator and minister for education David Coltart said that no printed or searchable electronic copies of the roll had been made available.