My excitement of yesterday’s election experience faded fast after I started hearing rumors of early election celebrations in various places, especially where I live in Chitungwiza. The road to this year’s election hasn’t been an easy one, as sometimes tempers have boiled over both at higher levels to as low as an ordinary person walking on the streets. That is the reason we had so many people in the past five years getting charged under the insult law when anger made them show the middle finger to the occupants of high office. I remember when my political science lecturer shared his political views in class, it got so tense that one would think it was a rally only for him to cool it by telling us to take it as academic.
But as the destination to the five-year journey draws closer it is the anxiety that is killing most Zimbabweans and other concerned stakeholders at this moment. Even Zimbabwe’s own whistleblower Baba Jukwa is not dishing out some reliable information on the election results updates. My uncle at home got tired of telling me not to worry myself as no live feed by ZTV from the Command Center has started. Besides press statements from the AU and other electoral bodies, and civic organizations websites, which have become alternative sources of information have maintained a shocking silence on elections results. I guess as law-abiding citizens they also took heed of the strong jail time warning given to Tsvangirai by the President for releasing results before Zimbabwe Electoral Commission does. Even in public transport, conversations on elections are done in a low tone as people try to avoid drawing unnecessary attention from the person sitting next to them.
Everybody is waiting anxiously.
On a day like today Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation’s television recorded a spike in television viewership ratings as concerned citizens wait to hear results of the nail-biting contest between Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Robert Mugabe. I hope this time we won’t see interrupted transmission backed by sweating faces on TV for the next two months as the results trickle in.
