Early turnout was low in Zimbabwe’s one-candidate election on Friday after President Robert Mugabe went ahead with the vote despite a wave of international condemnation.
Mugabe, in power for 28 years, stood alone after opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew six days ago saying state-backed violence and intimidation meant his supporters risked their lives by voting.
Tsvangirai and his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), who say the vote is a farce, urged people to abstain but said they should vote if their lives were in danger.
”Whatever might happen, the results … will not be recognised by the world. No matter what you are forced to do, we know what is in your heart. Don’t risk your life. The people’s victory may be delayed but it won’t be denied,” he said in a statement.
Voting began shortly after 5am GMT and turnout was thin at many polling stations in the capital, Harare, and other urban areas, unlike parliamentary and presidential elections in March when people queued from the early hours. Polling was due to end at 5pm GMT.
Tsvangirai won the March 29 poll but fell short of the majority needed for outright victory.
There was no clear indication of turnout in rural areas where Mugabe’s Zanu-PF has in the past been stronger.
”There is no doubt turnout will be very low,” said Marwick Khumalo, head of monitors from the Pan African Parliament.
But state television denounced foreign media reports of low turnout. It showed long queues in a semi-rural constituency close to Harare and said voters ignored MDC appeals to abstain.
The G8 group of rich nations lambasted Zimbabwe for going ahead with the vote and the United States said the United Nations Security Council may consider fresh sanctions on Zimbabwe next week.
Mugabe voted with his wife at Highfield Township, on the outskirts of Harare. Asked how he felt, he told journalists: ”Very fit, optimistic, upbeat,” before being driven away.
The MDC said Zanu-PF militants would force people to vote, specially in rural areas where the veteran leader lost support during the first round.
Voters had their little finger dyed with purple ink.
In the affluent Greendale suburb of Harare, there were scores of people queuing for bread at a shopping centre, but only 10 at a polling station nearby.
”I need to get food first and then maybe I can go and vote … I heard there could be trouble for those who don’t,” said Tito Kudya, an unemployed man.
Economic collapse
Mugabe (84) has presided over Zimbabwe’s economic collapse with hyper-inflation, 80% unemployment, food and fuel shortages. A loaf of bread now costs Z$6-billion Zimbabwe, or 150 times more than at the time of the first round of elections.
Khumalo said his observers had seen a very long queue in the morning but it turned out to be people lining up for bread.
”The ingredients that would make this election free and fair, we haven’t seen them yet,” he said.
A middle-aged man waiting for a bus said it was dangerous to talk about politics. ”Your tongue can cost you your teeth,” he told Reuters, adding that he would vote.
”I hope that will mean the trouble that we have been seeing also goes away,” he said.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission said the vote was going well. ”Everything is well on course and people are voting peacefully,” Deputy chief elections officer Utoile Silaigwana told state radio.
A newspaper vendor in Harare city centre told Reuters: ”I am not voting in this election. We voted for change last time and nothing changed. This time, we know the outcome, so why bother?”
The vote has been widely condemned both inside and outside Africa.
African Union foreign ministers were discussing Zimbabwe ahead of a summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. ”I don’t think we are going to accept the result but we are still discussing,” one minister said, asking not to be identified.
A security committee of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) called earlier this week for the vote to be postponed, saying Mugabe’s re-election could lack legitimacy.
But Mugabe, who thrives on defiance, remained unmoved and said he would attend the AU summit to confront his opponents.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said after a G8 meeting in Japan that Washington would raise the issue of further sanctions against Zimbabwe at the UN Security Council.
”We deplore the actions of the Zimbabwean authorities — systematic violence, obstruction and intimidation — which have made a free and fair presidential run-off election impossible,” the G8 rich countries’ foreign ministers said in a statement.
Analysts said Mugabe was pressing ahead with the election to try to cement his grip on power and strengthen his hand if he was forced to negotiate with Tsvangirai.
Mugabe says he is willing to sit down with the MDC but will not bow to outside pressure.
The MDC says nearly 90 of its supporters have died in political violence, which it blamed on Zanu-PF supporters. Mugabe says the opposition has been responsible for the violence. — Reuters