Comrade Fatso tells it like it is. He also re-affirms some of our bloggers opinions. The MDC is not following up their victory press conferences with any campaign to re-engage Zimbabweans after the vote on Saturday. While the MDC rightly has to take time tallying and making sense of the results, they are leaving Zimbabweans in a vacuum. I disagree with those who say that the delay in the announcement of results is causing tension and anger. As Comrade Fatso points out it can have the opposite effect of causing uncertainty and doubt – after all the regime controls all public media, and the MDC’s information capacity has always been weak.

Comrade Fatso says we can’t defend what we don’t know. In Amanda’s recent blog, Show us the figures, she argues that as soon as ZEC announces results, the MDC should be using all of its capacity and machinery to share their own comparative results, highlight discrepancies and make sure that their supporters are aware of the electoral fraud. Whilst it is important that this comparison is being done by initiatives like the Independent Results Centre, freedom is not won on the Internet. It is won by making sure people on the street are kept informed and inspired.

Victory celebrations, confusion, uncertainty. That’s the air that Harare’s breathing today. ‘Zvinhu hazvina kumira bho’ says a well known forex dealer to me. ‘No, its looking good actually,’ I tell him. ‘MDC is beating ZANU by far at the moment.’ Jealous, a quiet waiter, serving me coffee comments ‘So its bad heh?!’ ‘No, they’re winning actually, Jealous,’ I have to affirm. ‘Tsvangirai is ahead in the presidential elections’. The MDC is holding press conference after press conference while many people are holding zvakapressa conferences. Many think things have gone terribly wrong in the elections because the message from the MDC hasn’t filtered to them. And the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is announcing results at the pace of a wheelchair-less cripple making their way down a power-cut Parirenyatwa corridor.

‘Tahwina!’ is the other popular cry that lives beside the uncertainty. Those who have got access to MDC information have erupted into parties. The popular suburb of Highfields was a people’s carnival last night as residents celebrated the MDC success in their constituency. The riot police arrived and politely asked them to carry on partying the following day. The residents, stunned by the calm police force, agreed. The table next to me at the Book Cafe has been an all-day drinking session as they drink to victory and joke about ZANU’s failure. Victory is in the air. But so is uncertainty. MDC has quite likely won a big victory in the polls but the updates aren’t getting out to the people. The townships should be filled with flyers, pamphlets and megaphones updating the people. And the MDC should build this hope so that if ZANU does try and steal this election then the people will resist. We can defend victory. We can’t defend what we don’t know.

This is Comrade Fatso’s Daily Blog during the Zimbabwe Election period. See www.comradefatso.vox.com

For Daily Election Blogs by other MAGAMBA! poets and activists see www.myspace.com/magamba

One of my favourite journalists in Zimbabwe is Jan Raath. He’s just written this great piece for The Times (UK) which is worth a look:

We are on the knife edge now. There is little doubt in the minds of a very large slice of the population that Robert Mugabe was dealt a severe blow on Saturday. They laughed in the voting queues about how they were going to skewer the rooster (Mr Mugabe) and roast him. They cast their votes and went home to await the result. The slack Sunday morning was interrupted repeatedly by cars hooting long and loud, with young men whistling and waving wide open palms. One crowd was singing: “Saddam is gone, and now it is Bob’s turn.” Wilson, who used to work for me, called me in the afternoon from Epworth, an old squatter camp where the only light at night is from candles. He said: “People woke up this morning and they were cheering that MDC had won in our area. Then the riot police came. They said, ‘Someone from Zanu PF reported to us that people were making violence here, but you are just having a nice time and being happy’. They said, ‘Carry on being happy’ and they went away.” A text message came from Langton, his brother-in-law. “Hi Mr Raath,” he wrote. “We are celebrating for our new president.”

And yet the day wore on and there was nothing from state radio apart from endless reggae. There are also fears in the minds of many, many people that Mr Mugabe is trying to reverse The Great Unthinkable by sucking large numbers out of his thumb to secure his Historic Victory. Maybe he is being told that you can’t cheat this, you will be caught with your pants about your wrinkly ankles. At your age, your Excellency, go with a little dignity. Or maybe they are preparing edicts to be announced over the radio that, instead of the election results, they are declaring a state of emergency and in the morning we will be woken by the sound of MiG jets overheard and troop carriers in the townships enforcing a curfew. In February 1980 I drove out one afternoon to find paratroopers of the Rhodesian SAS on the street corners in full combat dress and dangerously armed. It took me a while to catch on that the Rhodesian generals intended to obliterate the nascent Zimbabwe and install a doomed new Rhodesia run by deranged white military men. Then someone spoke calmly to the generals, and the soldiers were collected and taken home. Maybe someone is talking to Mugabe. Maybe his wife can do the trick. Anyone.

So I’m sitting here in Harare on Monday morning wondering what it exactly was that the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) intended to gain from their two weekend victory press conferences. Yes, their announcement got a lot of international news coverage, not local. And I’m sure it put Bob on the back foot. But what now? What is the MDC waiting for . . . the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission’s “official” results which everyone is suspicious of? It seems odd to temper a wonderfully audacious move (claiming victory) with the predictable path of comparing results.

What will the MDC do when ZEC announces Mugabe the winner? Across the country Zimbabweans agree that the MDC has trounced Zanu PF but they don’t believe (correctly) that this automatically translates into Mr Mugabe handing over the keys to State House, and his black Mercedes. So what can the MDC, showing decisive political leadership, and the Zimbabwean people activating their courage, do to seal the victory and challenge our collective disbelief that we can actually have change in Zimbabwe?

Eldred Masungurure, a Harare political analyst recently disagreed that Zimbabweans will actively resist a stolen election saying that fear is too pervasive in this country. And certainly we live in a country where Zimbabweans willingly hang Mugabe’s portrait in their shops and businesses even though there is no law requiring them to do so. And where, over this election period, Zimbabweans have had their private property Zanu-fied with posters of Bob’s fist and have been too fearful to take them down.

All of us have to ask ourselves how willing we are to get up and get out and support the political change that is happening in Zimbabwe. My fear is that the MDC leadership and the Zimbabwean people will once again, wait for each other to make the first move.

Comrade Fatso updates us again with his perspective on the day after the vote took place in Zimbabwe . . .

Today the streets have a strange energy. People are waiting. Vakamirira maresults. Sundays are normally quiet in Harare’s city centre. Today the streets are shuffling from one foot to another like the thirty fourth person in a snaking bread queue. The streets are unsure. Hopeful. Young police recruits patrol the streets trying to stamp an authority they are no longer sure that they have. The cigarette vendor apologises for the high cost of her cigarettes. ‘Tichadzikisa maprices mangwana’. We will reduce the prices tomorrow. When change comes. The streets are waiting.

We woke today to rumours of Mugabe fleeing to Malaysia and news of the MDC press conference. We carried our bababarazi’d selves to the conference after a night of ragga at downtown Harare’s Tube Nightclub. According to the MDC’s counting process they are way ahead in the polls. Victory is on people’s lips. But so is rigging. Because the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has yet to announce its ‘official’ tally of votes. It has yet to work out how to turn our dream into a nightmare. So expectant Zimbabweans have been subjected to endless music videos and football on the state broadcaster. It’s as if the elections never happened. So the streets wait. Shuffling from one foot to another. Waiting. Hoping.

See www.comradefatso.vox.com
For Daily Election Blogs by other MAGAMBA! poets and activists see www.myspace.com/magamba

OK its almost official but not quite – the Movement for Democratic Change has trounced the “fist of fury”. Way to go. We’ve had two victory press conferences at the Meikles Hotel which are entirely necessary, but its enough already. As Amanda rightly asked, when is the MDC going to reconnect with their supporters who are sitting in the dark, waiting and wondering about the election results? The MDC’s base of support comes from working class people who don’t have access to satellite TV and the Internet.

Morgan Tsvangirai should be doing victory laps around high density suburbs, inspiring and preparing Zimbabweans for the next round of the fight for democracy. As we all know winning elections in Zimbabwe don’t necessarily mean a transfer of “power”.

So where are the MDC trucks and vans and cars filled with campaign workers roaming the cities hooting up a storm of resistance? They were very active and visible pre-election – now where have they gone?

Enough with Press Conferences for Change; let’s have some open air celebrations.

Some MDC activists that I’ve spoken to have said that the economy – the deteriorating economy – will make victory at the polls pretty much a done deal. Who would vote for a man who has presided over our economic free fall? But one of the first steps in winning an election is making sure that your supporters are registered to vote. An article that we posted on Kubatana.net recently called No joy for pregnant women during economic crisis comes to mind. The author interviews a woman who says that even though a birth certificate is a vital document she can’t afford the nominal amount that she owes the hospital. So they are withholding the birth certificate because of her nonpayment of the medical fees associated with the birth of her child.

With regard to the election, in this environment where transport is incredibly expensive and where you can hardly access any public service without paying a bribe, many Zimbabweans would have thought twice about the cost of registering to vote when their other basic needs like buying food come first. Clearly the deteriorating economic environment has been a thorn in the side of both political parties. The opposition finds “more” Zimbabweans need to be in cash or bread queues, than in freedom marches or voting lines. This might be short sighted but a belly full of hunger needs to be sated, even temporarily.

I went to one of “More” Morgan’s star rallies a week ago. I was surprised by how many people in the crowd were wearing MDC t-shirts. And I questioned the ratio of members of the public (voters) versus MDC campaign workers and their hangers-on. The Mail & Guardian interviewed Kennedy Shoko, a barber at a downtown salon in Bulawayo

He says his only major worry is that the opposition might not be able to turn the crowds it has been attracting in campaign rallies into votes. “Most of these youths who have been running around are not registered voters.”

Another Mail & Guardian article entitled A Day At The Polls made me think of my voting experience yesterday:

If this was the day that the big change would take place, Harare did not look the part. If it weren’t for the posters and the tent structures for polling stations on open land, one would be forgiven for thinking this was just another sleepy public holiday in the capital of Zimbabwe.

Elections aren’t won through posters, t-shirts and press advertisements.

With reports of a low turnout I’m wondering if the MDC leadership can multi-task; whether they can operate outside of election fever? Has the MDC engaged a sustained voter registration campaign since the last election, or have their eyes been solely fixed on negotiations?

The electoral playing field is unequal and unfair – the MDC has been criticising this since the 2000 election – so I, like many others, am sick and tired of the opposition crying “foul play”. That multi-tasking question comes up again: with the certainty of Mugabe rigging the election in his favour, has the MDC been preparing their supporters for Plan B, or does a phrase like “defend your vote” equal their idea of a Plan B?

Change in Zimbabwe has to come from an inspired political leadership backed by courageous citizens. But we do need leadership. We need leaders who do more than spout vague slogans like “defend your vote”.