Posters and stickers
If there is a run off for the presidential election in Zimbabwe then Mugabe better start printing new posters.
When I’ve been out walking and running some of the streets of Harare I’ve noticed that Zimbabweans are taking back their power and pulling down presidential election posters glued to the walls of their private homes and businesses. Talking about glue, Zanu PF clearly used a poor quality glue because where Zimbabweans aren’t ridding themselves of Robert, the old man is simply peeling off the walls. In the shopping centre where I work, people waiting for their cash from the ATM have taken things a bit further, and have started scrawling profanities on Bob’s posters next to the cash dispenser.
A friend’s relative called her today from Nyamapanda with the news that Mugabe’s war veterans are roaming the country side threatening violence and accusing people of supporting the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). The person conveying the news said that if there is a run off then its unlikely that people will go out and vote for the MDC again because of the fear of a backlash.
There were over 8000 polling stations around Zimbabwe during the election and the MDC was concerned that at many of the rural polling stations there would be so few people voting that the authorities would be able to identify those who had voted for the opposition, and therefore the possibility of retribution would increase. Philip Barclay’s blog about election monitoring in rural Masvingo substantiates this where he states that the vote tally for Zanu PF was as low as 44 at one polling station.
Meanwhile in the office we’ve just been discussing the new Morgan Tsvangirai stickers starting to spring up in Newlands. Vote Morgan Tsvangirai for President – Africa’s Second Mandela. Hey, but this is a bit of a long shot surely? Comparisons are odious, and this one particularly so.