SUSAN NJANJI, Harare | Saturday 7.00pm
ECONOMIC hardships and grievances turned out to be the driving force behind most Zimbabweans turning out to cast their ballots on Saturday, the first day of a referendum to accept or reject a new constitution.
It would allow the government to seize land from white commercial farmers for redistribution to blacks without paying compensation.
The two days of voting began on a slow and peaceful note in most places as many people pinned their hope on their ballots to bring about a turn-around of events in the embattled southern African country.
Polling officers and officials from groups opposed to the draft constitution reported reasonable numbers of people voting across the nation.
But what appears to be driving people to vote is not the dire need for a new constitution itself, but the need to change the status quo. The vote is also seen as an opinion poll ahead of parliamentary elections due in April.
“We want change in the way this country is being run, we are suffering,” said 32-year old carpenter Jairos Chibi, pointing at a long queue of more than 200 people waiting to buy paraffin at a service station adjacent to a polling station where fewer than 20 people were queuing to vote.
Paraffin is the main source of cooking and illuminating fuel for the majority of the urban poor.
Some five hours after polling stations opened, scores of people queuing up with containers for paraffin some 50 metres away from a polling station said they had not voted by then because they had been waiting to buy paraffin since morning.
The outcome of the referendum is seen as a test of the 75-year-old President Robert Mugabe’s 20-year hold on power.
While sharp divisions are emerging with one Harare businessman, predicted: “The verdict is obvious, it’s a ‘no’ vote.”