Signs of life in this election
So we’re four weeks away from the Mother of All Elections, but in some ways, the country is only barely starting to come to life around it.
IRIN News reports that you wouldn’t know there’s an election coming. And a friend of mine working out in rural Mutoko, Mashonaland East, tells me “there hasn’t been much talk of it out in the sticks here.”
At the shops by our office here, Zanu PF posters have been up for weeks. They look exactly like they did last time around. Same old picture of Cde Bob in his Chimurenga gear, same stark design. I was joking with a friend of mine that of course Mugabe had to run as Zanu PF president again – they had all these old posters from 2002 that they have to use up!
For a while, these Zanu PF posters were the only ones around, but my colleague just came back from the bank, and she said she’d seen some MDC youths putting up posters all over the show – with an energy and enthusiasm for their work that she really enjoyed.
Meanwhile, my workmate went to Guruve in Mashonaland West on the weekend, and he found people in MDC t-shirts, and walls plastered with MDC posters the whole way from Mvurwi to Guruve – but none for Zanu PF.
Apparently MDC (Tsvangirai) Secretary General Tendai Biti reckons that “there is no government in this world which can win an election when inflation is over 100,000%, 80% unemployment and three million of its people are living abroad. Victory is certain for us.”
Tsvangirai’s crew might think that victory is certain, but it’s good to see they’re putting some effort into campaigning all the same. What’s even more certain than their victory is that this election is going to be stolen. So is the MDC ready to talk about victory? Or to work for it, come April Fool’s Day when they find it yet again snatched from under their nose.