Zimbabweans refuse to vote and spoil ballot papers despite Robert Mugabe's violent threats
Pastor Dale Morgan
Zimbabweans refuse to vote and spoil ballot papers despite Robert
Mugabe's violent threats*
By Louis Weston and Peta Thornycroft in Harare
Last Updated: 3:13AM BST 28/06/2008
President Robert Mugabe faces humiliation as hundreds of thousands of
Zimbabweans defied intimidation and refused to vote in his unopposed
re-election.
Despite threats from Mr Mugabe's thugs to beat those who refused to
vote, many polling stations in the capital Harare had not seen a single
ballot cast three hours after opening.
Others remained virtually empty and many of those who did vote simply
spoiled their ballot papers.
Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition leader, announced he was pulling out
of the election last weekend in protest at weeks of violence against his
supporters. But the regime said the poll would go ahead anyway.
Mr Mugabe's militiamen warned they would launch "Operation Red Finger",
targeting anyone whose left little finger is not stained with the ink
used to indicate who has voted.
But observers estimated that turnout was between a quarter and a third
of the level seen in the first round on March 29.
One man in Harare's suburb of Belvedere spoiled his ballot in protest
against the regime. Holding up his coloured finger, he said: "It's just
to be safe. I have got to vote, they have been saying 'We will spill
your blood if you don't'."
But he marked two crosses on his ballot paper, beside both Mr Mugabe and
Mr Tsvangirai: "You have to put two crosses, if you leave it blank they
will fill it in themselves," he said.
Others did not even bother going to the polling booths. A waiter with a
red fingertip admitted: "I did it myself, with a ball-point pen. It's
better to be safe."
Throughout the day, state television insisted that a huge turnout was
taking place, attributing the absence of queues to a hitherto unknown
efficiency among election officials.
However, ZBC's Freedom Moyo, its reporter in Bulawayo, defied the
station's remit by telling the nation: "There are very few people.
People have listened to Tsvangirai's call to boycott the election." He
was not heard from again.
Mr Mugabe yesterday entered a polling booth in Harare to declare, as the
only candidate standing, that he was "very optimistic" about the result.
In rural areas, where monitors are few, reports emerged of coerced
voting, with some all-night indoctrination sessions taking place outside
polling stations.
The Zimbabwe Election Support Network said its members had seen gross
malpractice, voter intimidation and a low turnout, while military
sources admitted that election officers were security personnel in plain
clothes.
On Harare's western outskirts, militia from Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party
rounded up hundreds of people and forced them to the polling stations.
"They have taken them now and anyway they are vulnerable so they will
vote," said an employer in the area.
In Mr Mugabe's home province of Mashonaland West, one source said: "All
our workers, all the resettled people are going to vote for Mugabe,
because if they don't they will be in extreme trouble. Our workers are
taken night after night for re-education camps, so we are expecting all
of them to vote for him today. Most of them didn't vote for him last
time. If there was ever freedom, Mugabe would not get five per cent of
the votes even right next to his rural home."
And in places Mr Mugabe's propaganda is effective. In St Mary's, south
of Harare, an auto-electrician said he had voted for the president
because Mr Tsvangirai wanted to hand Zimbabwe back to the whites.
The 84-year-old leader proclaimed himself "healthy" and "optimistic" as
he cast his own vote in Harare.
MDC sources said that while they hoped for a low turnout, they expected
figures announced in rural areas to be higher than in the first round.
One source said the priority was for people to do whatever was necessary
"so they are around and alive when the time comes to have a real election".
Mr Tsvangirai denounced the process as an "exercise in mass intimidation
with people all over the country being forced to vote. There is nothing
legitimate about this election process."
He urged African leaders to refrain from recognising the outcome of the
"sham" poll. "Anyone who recognises the result of this election is
denying the will of the Zimbabwean people," said Mr Tsvangirai.
He added there would be "no role" for President Thabo Mbeki in mediating
a solution if South Africa recognises Mr Mugabe's expected victory.
ENDS