My Campaign
Morgan Tsvangirai
I have travelled throughout the country, and I have listened to people. In Nkayi, in Gutu, in Chiredzi, in Mudzi — everywhere I have been, it is evident that the people want change. They want a better life. People are desperate for a new beginning. They are desperate for national renewal and rebirth.
People say they are tired. They are suffering. But they are looking forward to the harmonised elections on March 29 as an event that will bring an end to the current brutal regime and the attendant harsh economic conditions, even though they fear that the elections will be rigged.
The people of Zimbabwe have suffered enough, with the country recording a world-record inflation rate of more than 150 000%. Most people are going hungry and the majority of our people are having only one meal every two days. About six million people are surviving on food handouts. Unemployment is at 90%. Life expectancy has dropped to 34. About 4 000 people are dying of HIV/Aids every week. Our economy is in worse shape than Somalia’s, a country that has not had a central government for more than 15 years. In short, we have become an African shame.
The call for change across the country is overwhelming. You only have to see the number of people attending Movement for Democratic Change rallies. At our campaign launch in Mutare, there were more than 60 000 people. Mammoth crowds have gathered at our rallies to listen to the policies and programmes that we have for Zimbabwe. The call for change is now awesome and the people have faith that these elections will change their lives.
Yet it is clear that the country is not ready for elections because the political playing field is not level. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) talks, which were meant to level the playing field, reached a dead end. Most of the issues agreed upon have not been fully implemented. Moreover, the current Constitution is so deficient that a free and fair election cannot be guaranteed.
My party still does not have access to the public media, even though fair access to publicly owned media is one of SADC’s minimum conditions for the conduct of democratic elections. The Zimbabwean government is not committed to creating conditions that are regarded as basic in any electoral process in the region.
For example, as an opposition party, we are entitled to a copy of the voters’ roll in electronic format so that we can audit it. But instead of giving us the list of registered voters in an electronic form that can easily be searched, the Registrar General gave us a “still” copy, which is nothing but photographs of the voters’ roll. The register of voters is managed by Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede, Robert Mugabe’s nephew and appointed by him. How then can my party trust that the voters’ roll is authentic when the person managing it has such a serious conflict of interest? The end result is predictable.
According to SADC guidelines, international observer teams are supposed to be deployed to the country at least 40 days before an election. Yet — and this is sad to note — SADC has failed to send observers on time. To send them just a few days before elections is, in a way, rubber-stamping a process that is already flawed.
Many will ask why, then, our party is participating in an election that is not free and fair. Some take our decision to participate as an endorsement of the electoral process as free and fair. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Administratively, institutionally and psychologically people want this election, as it is the only time that people can freely say NO.
We are participating as a way of keeping the democratic flame alive. We need to keep alive the people’s faith in achieving change through democratic means. We are participating in this election because the people say they are tired of Zanu-PF. They are tired, they are hungry and they are suffering.
The 10 minutes they will spend in the polling station may be the only private time they will ever have to make a statement against Zanu-PF and to punish the dictator. The people of Zimbabwe want their 10 minutes.
I have toured the whole country listening to the people. They say they have put their faith in the March elections in the hope that these elections will bring about the change they need so much.
The people have told me that they have placed their faith in our democratic movement. They want a new Zimbabwe and a new beginning. They know that the MDC represents the change they can trust. We will not let them down.
Morgan Tsvangirai is leader of the Movement for Democratic Change “Tsvangirai” party. He is running for the office of president