Just two days before Zimbabwe’s 31 July Harmonised Election, Zimbabweans continue to share their observations and experiences with Kubatana. You can view our map of crowdsourced election experiences, and also read other comments here, here and here.

• Mapurisa akavhota nezuro kuno varikuvhotera panzvimbo iprivate kuGlendale (Police voted yesterday at a private location in Glendale) frm yesterday and today.  Election daylight robbery.
• 3 days ago I was chased by ZPF district chairman at the meeting held at Chikundu Growth Point and accused of being an MDC supporter.
• Rigging has started with ZEC moving teachers from wards they registered to be polling officers outside their wards. Are they going to exercise their right to vote?
• Chirumhanzu Zibagwe have opened a base. ZPF youths singing around the community scaring people.
  Polling officers some of them are youth officers so this will also intimidate people as they are some people who were involved in beating people up last time.
• Mudzi DA is like a thorn in a cow dung he is causing havoc to anyone whom he suspects to be from Red team crew.
• About 600 students on presidential scholarship summoned at state house to vote
• Serious flaws discovered upon opening postal ballot papers in Rusape Makoni Central constituency. Ward 1: 11 registered voters 17 envelopes received, Dombo Building: registered 55, envelopes received 145, ward 8: registered 1, envelops received 3.
• I m not feeling comfort with what is going to be the results of my party
• Having seen the attendance of today’s Zanu pf rally in Gweru I cast out doubt on his praises from masses of people. I used to see people coming for his rallies by force thus why they were coming in big numbers not this time, but on their own its one which may doubt early change. Some who did not attend are crying about his age. History is his shield that people may say he love Zimbabwe but why committed to such an age raises eyebrows.
• Never never allow ballot boxes to be moved before they are counted. Command centre for what? They want to rig never allow them
• Help, here in Zvimba North Zanu pf District chairman Owen Muronzi and Tichaona Mugeri are polling officials they led the political beatings in 2008 and have been involved in Friday the 26 burning of Citrus Inn in Raffingora belonging to a Miriam Chombo supporter
• In Mt Darwin town people are being forced to cast their votes in designated poling stations according to the political branch they belong to. You can not choose a poling station even if its in the same ward.
• Hello Zimbabweans. Its less than 3 weeks when i warned you that violence can start anytime in Mberengwa.  Look at what happens yesterday. The president of Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe who is the Mdc-T candidate for Mberengwa North constituency was attacked . He was severely injured on the face. His car was also damaged. When i told you, some of you failed to believe.
• I am in Doma farming areas and i have attended a lot of patrotic front meetings and leaders are telling people that they must write down the serial number or crame it so that it wil be easy for them to identify where the person hv voted. Also that the people must go to vote of the same village with their subchief. That the people must not mix with other villages.
• At mdc t rall even zanu pf members where there without harased imagine if it was a zanu rally
• Quite a number of polling offcers a not going to vote due to them displaced frm their areas is this fair

From the crew at Kalabash:

Now there’s not much rallying left to do so get your gear on and go see what the fuss is about. Make sure you don’t dress too quickly. This is important. If you happen to throw on your Manchester United home kit and wind up at a ZANU rally it may be taken the wrong way and you’ll look like a bull’s eye in a sea of yellow and green. Back slowly out of the arena and go back to your wardrobe. This is a harmless mistake but just so you don’t make it again here’s what not to take to a rally for either of the 2 main parties:

What not to take to a ZANU rally
-Blood-red sneakers or pumps for the ladies
-Red soccer kits: Arsenal, Manchester United, rather go for the Chicken Inn kit, that’s a winner
-You just got your new red G-Shock watch, leave it at home
-Caps: don’t worry you’ll get one there
-On the flipside, if you’re buying a take-away then Chicken Inn packaging might appear to be aligned with the rival party, rather grab a neutral sadza in a Styrofoam container
-Your drink depends on your taste of course but Spa-Letta’s berry flavoured pop might be pushing the boundaries. Grit your teeth and have a sickly sweet but highly patriotic Pine Nut

What not to take to an MDC rally
-Yes you may be a Zimbabwe football fan but sadly today is not about your country, it’s about your party so hang it back in the cupboard
-Housewives/husbands must ensure that they remove their Marigold gloves before leaving the house, this is an easy mistake that would make you look highly suspect
-Even if those flashy yellow earrings really bring out your eyes today don’t risk it, rather hide them behind bright red shades
-Now, as lunchtime approaches and you want an energy boost stay away from those uplifting banana bunches, you’ll look like a party rival with boxing gloves, rather go for an egg and discretely consume the yellow centre
-Finally your drink, luckily for you freezits should be available and at least the indecision you face between red and green doesn’t come into play. Choose red, it’s the right thing to do.

31st of July is going to come and pass but nobody knows what the future holds for Zimbabwe. If one of the contesting parties claims victory in this coming election speculation is high on the fate of the losing candidates and their supporters. As a nation I believe it is high time we go into this election with the mind of a gambler. Win or lose we just have to move on and not to go back to another 2008 era.

My friends in Kenya always tell me that Zimbabwe is like a copy of everything Kenya, and I tried to argue but when I was taken through all the political transitions Kenya went through, and Zimbabwe followed suite I got the picture but I wasn’t convinced on the point of leadership. Kenya was involved in a bloody and disputed election in 2007, which was later, resolved through an inclusive government. A few years later Kenya passed a new constitution and after that they held elections which some may say was peaceful whilst others blamed the invisible hand, which helped propel Uhuru Kenyatta to power. Well I noted the argument on rigging was based on the political affiliation and tribe these two friends of mine belonged to in Kenya. I was told African politics also has roots in tribe and religious beliefs just like what we are experiencing here in Zimbabwe when a running candidate was labeled a tribalist just because he is fighting the injustices people from his region experienced in the past 33 years.

Zimbabweans voted in 2008 and the dispute over the election result brought about the inclusive government and we now wait for elections on the 31st of July under a new charter, which was endorsed earlier this year. The only difference in our transition phase to that of Kenya is in the change of leadership. Just like ZANU-PF which has been in power for the past 33years, Kenya’s Kenya African National Union (KANU) ruled for nearly 40 years since independence and was defeated by the National Rainbow Coalition. If this is the same fate, which is going to face the revolutionary party, then maybe it could be true that were copying everything from Kenya.

In case its escaped you, these days the City of Harare has barely any street cleaners, and the few street cleaners there are probably get paid less for a month’s work than your chef bosses spend on a trip to the pub. So when I see all of your Zanu PF leaflets thrown out of whatever diamond money bought truck that you’ve been zipping around the streets in, I can only think that you’re screwed in the head, stoked up on a bit of election cash in hand.

R.E.S.P.E.C.T … for people who have to clean up after you, for the environment, and how about for yourselves?

The rumour went out this morning

‘They are about to ‘pick up’ particular ‘target’ people from civil society’

(for many have been speaking publically of their worries of rigging and corruption
and producing evidence  and reports to back their claims)
and Sunday is a good day to make arrests as there is no court open to bring a complaint

And we look, again, at the power that  fear can unleash on our energy
how one ‘reliable source of information’ can lead us away from our centers

years ago we responded to these threats by closing down
moving out of our homes/offices – our places of safety – taking refuge until normal life could resume

Today it feels different
a phone-tree between people is activated
the connections with webs already formed is alerted
we close the gates
(burn the Tamil cleansing smoke in the center of the herb spiral – if that calls to you)

make the tea
and watch the sun spread light into the Sunday garden

I did not know whether to laugh or cry when I came across a Zanu PF campaign insert in today’s Herald.

That politicians will say anything to get votes is standard fare for all campaigns, yet the Zanu PF brief shows pictures of blacks being chased by white cops with dogs on leashes back in the 1960s.  1896 photos of Ndebeles shackled.  A sign outside a motel that says “This motel is not multi-racial.” Then we have Joshua Nkomo walking with Fidel Castro, Nkomo and Mugabe smiling at a press conference decades ago, that famous picture of Lookout Masuku with the man then known as Rex Nhongo, gets one thinking where exactly this party locates its relevance in Zimbabwe’s contemporary political space and discourse.

If a party keeps reminding voters of the past 100 years, surely it must be questioned if it has any clue about the future of the nation.

Only the foolish dismiss history’s relevance to a nation’s collective memory, but is that what Zimbabweans want, to be constantly reminded about the “evil settlers?”

Some folks have said Zanu PF has only succeeded in alienating its erstwhile supporters by that obsession with politics of belligerence where anyone who holds divergent views is quickly labeled an associate of the settlers. Even loyal supporters who do not agree with some of the nonsense risks expulsion and lumped together with MDC as a puppet of imperialist!

Just recall Jonathan Samkange who actually sued a fellow “party cadre” after the comrade said Samukange was an MDC plant. Samkange sued, saying that accusation was enough to get him killed!

“Defendant, in associating the plaintiff with the MDC party, intended to injure plaintiff’s reputation and personal security especially in light of Zanu-PF’s slogan, namely, ‘Down with MDC’ means kill MDC members. Defendant is inviting Zanu-PF members to kill plaintiff. The threat is real and potentially injurious to plaintiff’s physical being, feeling and association with other members of the Mudzi community,” Samkange said in papers filed in the Harare High Court.”

That Zanu PF stokes racial hatred is fact well known, and this campaign has become no different, but I would like to believe voters are more sophisticated than Zanu PF imagines.

As Tsvangirai said the other week: “Just wear their T-shirts, but you know what is deep down your heart.”