After the dust of next week’s election has settled, Zimbabwe’s municipalities face the headache of removing graffiti and posters from trees, walls, billboards, commuter buses, government buildings, shops and pushcarts. There are no catchy messages, but colourful campaign media is everywhere.
Political pressure group Sokwanele-Zvakwana (literally translated ”enough is enough”) grabs the attention of motorists in the busy city centre with their strategically sprayed graffiti. The group is calling on people not to vote in an ”illegitimate” poll.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) candidates have uniform posters: all in red, with the message, ”New Zimbabwe A New Beginning”. It bears the picture of the candidate and voters are simply urged to ”Vote MDC”.
Zanu-PF posters come in different shapes, sizes and colours — red, blue and green — with pictures of the candidates featuring prominently just below the party logo.
Posters of independent candidates, not surprisingly, have more information about themselves and their unique selling point. Margaret Dongo, an independent candidate for Harare Central, challenges voters to vote for a candidate with the three Cs: Courage, Confidence and Commitment.
In the hotly contested Tsholotsho constituency, about 600km south of Harare, former information minister Jonathan Moyo, who is standing as an independent, has posters which read: ”Pambili le Tsholotsho” (Forward with Tsholotsho). His green posters have a picture of him and urge residents to ”Vote Jonathan Moyo”.
The only Zanu-PF poster that has a different feel is that of the Tsholotsho candidate Musa Mathema who advised her supporters ”umuzi, umuzi lomama” which translates into ”a family is only a family with a mother”, obviously hoping to benefit from Joyce Mujuru’s ascendancy to the party vice presidency.
Interestingly, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s posters hanging on street poles, walls and trees call on people to ”Vote Tsvangirai for President”. The MDC leader clearly has his sights on the 2008 presidential elections.
Analysts say this campaign media will not have any impact on voters. ”It is just a formality, but people have already made up their minds,” says Lovemore Madhuku, a political analyst at the University of Zimbabwe. ”It would appear candidates don’t believe in themselves. I am not surprised that their posters are not that inspiring.”
Brian Raftopolous of the Institute of Developmental Studies agrees: ”They want to carry a broader political party position.
”Candidates are cautious to avoid spreading developmental messages that they won’t be able to fulfil.”