Hope and fear in Zim vote

from the NYTimes

...

Voters will go to the polls Saturday, with President Robert Mugabe, the iconic leader of a nation enduring catastrophic hardship, trying to retain the power he has held for 28 years....

“Even if Mugabe only gets one vote, the tabulated results are in the box and he has won,” said Andrew Moyse, who coordinates a project that monitors coverage in the Zimbabwe news media.

Echoing that sentiment, Noel Kututwa, the chairman of a coalition of civic groups dedicated to honest elections, said: “We will not have a free and fair election. There is desperation for change. But, in the end, I can’t say that Mugabe won’t win, because he probably will.”

... The state controls radio, television and the only daily newspaper. The reporting of events is reliably biased toward Mr. Mugabe, extolling his courage and generosity while depicting his opponents as little more than footmen for the British, Zimbabwe’s former colonial masters.

In a country suffering rampant hunger, the government bolsters its standing by distributing subsidized food, routinely favoring, critics allege, members of Mr. Mugabe’s party, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front. In a country enduring epic inflation of more than 100,000 percent, the campaigning president has been able to bestow tractors and plows on village chiefs whose gratitude is expected to be a reciprocal harvest of votes....

Then there are the brass tacks of the election. Groups like Mr. Kututwa’s complain about an election commission dominated by Mr. Mugabe’s cronies, rules that bar people from registering in cities where the president is less popular, a paucity of polling stations in those locations; and long outdated voting rolls that in the past have been accused of permitting guileful ZANU-PF advocates to cast ballots for the dead.

“There are many tricks to play; the illiterate stand in separate queues and we mark the votes for them,” said Gift Mukumir.... “Last time, our people were bused from Mutoko and allowed to vote a second time in Epworth.”...

the Movement for Democratic Change, allege that nine million ballots have been printed, even though there are only 5.9 million voters. They suggest the surplus will end up marked for Mr. Mugabe....