/ 18 February 2000

‘Today Zimbabwe is my country again’

Mercedes Sayagues

The queues for paraffin at the petrol stations were longer than the queues at the polling stations. Some of the four million people, or 80% of registered voters, who abstained must have been queuing. Others instead voted because paraffin, petrol and diesel are scarce but hardship is abundant.

On two days, 1,33-million Zimbabweans trickled through 3E600 polling stations to approve or reject a new draft Constitution proposed by the autocratic government of President Robert Mugabe. The No won.

At polling stations in central Harare one could see madams and maids, workers in overalls and black yuppies with cellphones, Rastafarians, women in saris, in church garb, in kente cloth and in skimpy shorts, men in suits, tracksuits and shorts, supermarket staff in uniform, the earring and nose ring crowd – a cross-section of Zimbabwe’s biodiversity.

Bruce Cassidy, a ponytailed hunk in an Iron Maiden T-shirt, and his pals, all in their early 20s, had never voted before.

Why now? “I’m sick and tired; too much presidential powers,” he says.

Poll monitor Georgina Muziti (53) wears a white straw hat, a long pleated black skirt and a colourful apron over it. She lives in Seke communal areas, 30km from Harare, and was dropped in central Harare as a monitor for the Roman Catholic Church.

“I do this for my children and grandchildren,” says Muziti in basic English. During two hot days she sat inside a tent at daytime, slept on the floor next to the ballot box at nightime, and went without a bath, a hot meal or a change of clothes.

By Sunday evening, her legs were swollen, she had flu and a headache, but still held proudly: “That ballot box is not getting out of my view, no ways.”

With Muziti is monitor Goodhope Ruswa (21). “There is no peace without justice; we need a fair election to have peace, and if this involves hardship, so be it.”

Like Muziti and Ruswa, voters exuded a sense of dignity and ownership, as if they felt their vote could make a difference; or as if the constitutional reform process had infused them with a sense of citizenship and they, in turn, made the referendum an exercise in citizenship.

“There is no use in moaning about the crisis, we have to do something,” said 83- year-old Marge Cartwright, limping with a walking stick.

“I want to see transparency, no corruption and good management of the economy,” said Elijah Mahachi, a cashier.

“Freedom!” said Tanyainyiwa Rumba, a cook.

During the two counting days, while I moved around Harare, people who noticed my referendum press badge asked me eagerly about the count. As I explained the No was winning, people smiled, shook hands and agreed: it is time for change.

“Today Zimbabwe has become my country again,” said Chamu-nuwa Kavidzanva, a university lecturer. “Zimbabwe is reborn,” said Peter Tower, a plumber.

At short notice, churches and civic groups trained and deployed thousands of committed monitors. But they covered only 80% of polling stations. The fuel shortage, heavy rains and delays in accreditation blocked some. Authorities blocked others.

The National Constitutional Assembly reported the arrest on arrival of an accredited monitor in Mwenezi. Others were turned away. Some were not allowed to sleep with the ballot boxes or to witness the counting.

In Gutu, monitors were sent away at 2pm on Sunday, five hours before closing. In Mabvuku township, in Harare, monitors received death threats inside the counting area.

The alien voters’ list was incomplete in many polling stations. At Avondale, the letter “P” was missing. A minister said a driver’s licence was good but presiding officers did not accept one.

“This is a big farce,” said Elaine Raftopoulos, chair of the Electoral Supervisory Comission. She refused to vote when asked for her name and address because she found it unlawful.

The irregularities stem from the partisan character of the registrar general office.

A United Nations election expert team that recently assessed Zimbabwe’s electoral system, at the request of the government, found it grossly inadequate. That was the last time the idea of UN electoral monitoring was mentioned.

Several polling stations without monitors show higher than average Yes votes. This smacks of rigging. But the few thousand votes the authorities may have rigged here and there were not enough to make up for 120 000 more No votes than the Yes.

Counting of the 26 ballot boxes of Harare Central took all Monday, from 8am to near midnight. Sixty electoral officers minutely verified, counted and recounted ballots while monitors pored over their shoulders, watching every move.

At 11pm on Monday, when the counting for Harare Central was over, 16 682 No to 4E821 Yes, Muziti sighed happily. It was too late to find a bus to Seke. Another night sleeping on the floor. “My bones hurt but I am happy. I would do it again,” she said. “For Zimbabwe.”