by Richard Nyamanhindi – SANF 08 No 17
As Zimbabwe approaches the national elections on 29 March, most political parties and independent candidates took their campaign to the major urban areas over the Easter holiday weekend.
According to recently published statistics by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), Harare and Bulawayo, the two largest urban centres in the country, now account for a combined 20 percent of the total registered voters of 5.9 million.
With just a week to go to the harmonised election and with most rural areas having been covered in an election campaign that began on 15 February, the battle now seems to be focusing more on the urban electorate.
Many analysts however, still believe that the rural areas will determine who gets the presidential post as more than 60 percent of the voters live in the rural areas.
Different political parties and candidates have adopted different strategies to reach out to the urban voters. Some are using door-to-campaigning, others fliers, rallies and the media, especially after the provisions made by the Electoral Act that every political party or candidate must have equal access to the media.
Starting on Friday, independent candidate Simba Makoni took his campaign to the satellite city of Chitungwiza and suburban Mabvuku, two of the biggest residential areas in Harare.
In his address, Makoni, a former finance minister, urged unity among all Zimbabweans and argued that working collectively is a pre-requisite to get Zimbabwe working again.
“Our economy needs re-working, we need to re-capitalise the education and health sectors which are in intensive care if our desire to revive the economy is going to be realised,” Makoni said.
ZANU PF rallies in Chitungwiza, Mbare and Dzivarasekwa on Saturday, with presidential candidate the incumbent President Robert Mugabe, also drew large crowds to the Harare suburbs.
Speaking in Mbare, Mugabe reminded the people of the history of Zimbabwe and how the early liberation fighters such as Mbuya Nehanda had defended the independence of the country against colonial rule in the 1890s.
He chronicled the history of how the British settlers took over the country in 1890 without compensation and argued that the British should never lecture anyone, especially Zimbabwe, on democracy as it was ZANU PF which brought democracy after engaging in the war of liberation that eventually brought about independence.
Mugabe warned business against the unremitting increases in prices that have characterised the marketplace in the past two weeks leading to the elections.
“We have warned them (business people) that what they are doing is not just and they think we are joking. They should reduce those prices immediately or they will fall down with them,” he said.
He said the more than 400 British companies in the country should comply with the recently enacted Indigenisation and Empowerment Act that makes it mandatory to have 51 percent local ownership.
Mugabe added that he is aware of the problems that the urban populace are facing with health, water, accommodation, electricity and transport, as well as the price of basic commodities.
He promised that these problems are being worked on and that the staple food, maize meal, is being imported from Zambia and Malawi to avert shortages.
“All this is being looked at, we have already started bringing 150,000 tons of maize from Zambia. The Reserve Bank on the other hand has also given the Ministry of Health funds to buy medicines, ambulances and scanners that will be used in our referral hospitals so that our people do not travel far away to get medical attention.”
On power shortages, Mugabe explained that these are not peculiar to Zimbabwe but a regional issue that needs the co-operation of all neighbouring countries to reduce demand and increase the generating capacity for the regional grid.
The Movement for Democracy Change (MDC) Tsvangirai party also held rallies in the capital over the weekend, including a rally on Sunday which attracted around 7,000 supporters at Glammis Arena near the city centre.
The presidential candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, predicted that on 29 March, his party will win a great victory over the ruling party.
Tsvangirai assured his supporters that he will invite the international community whom he said are on stand-by to assist Zimbabwe within the first six months of assuming power. The former trade unionist also promised to introduce a new currency in his first six months in office.
After a weekend in which both the ruling party and the main opposition candidates attracted large crowds to their rallies in Harare and Bulawayo, there are questions about how the urban vote might be split between the candidates, and whether the numbers that turned up for the different rallies are registered voters who will cast their votes for the respective parties and candidates.
Most Zimbabwean voters are usually reticent about their divulging their preference as they know the ballot is secret.
Tsvangirai has dismissed suggestions that Makoni has been chipping away at his traditional urban support. He said this week that he sees Makoni as a faction of Zanu-PF, and that the voters too, would see the new challenger as such.
It seems however that Makoni will try to feed on the disillusionment among urban voters over Tsvangirai’s failure to lead a united opposition into the election.
ZANU PF will be watching the urban vote closely as the Zimbabwean electoral law requires the winner of the presidential race to gain a clear majority – more than 50 percent – to avoid a run-off with the second place candidate.
The president will therefore be hoping to get more of the urban votes to buttress his popularity in the rural areas.
