allAfrica.com: Zimbabwe: Golden Chance to Speak Out (Page 1 of 1)

THIS Saturday, Zimbabweans will have yet another opportunity to elect those who should rule over them for the next half-a-decade.

It's a chance that each one of the 5,9 million people registered to vote in the weekend elections should seize without hesitation considering that the next synchronised polls will only come in 2013 when those who would have made it through this Saturday submit themselves yet again before the electorate, begging for fresh terms.

Sixty months is far too long a time for any voter to live with regrets and it is precisely for this reason that Zimbabweans should cast their votes wisely.

Come March 29, each registered voter should have the patience of a turtle to endure the frustrating queues at the polling stations as staying away from the polls, for whatever reason other than ill-health or mental incapacitation, would undermine the people's will to resuscitate the country's battered economy.

Never before has the country been confronted with such profound challenges as today's and this Saturday Zimbabweans have the crucial task of choosing a credible line-up of office bearers -- from councillors right up to the highest office -- capable of healing an economy that has been in intensive care for the past nine years.

The country's economy is at the crossroads with no easy solutions out of the multi-faceted crisis sticking out like a sore thumb.

In December, inflation zoomed past 100,000 percent, a world record and an unusual feat for a country not at war. And in the past few weeks prices have soared to record highs, a sure sign that whoever wins the watershed elections has to institute painful measures to subdue the inflation monster.

Unemployment is getting out of hand, gravitating towards 90 percent on the back of company closures and declining capacity utilisation in industry that has given rise to widespread shortages.

Life expectancy, the age until which a person is expected to live, has fallen to the lowest levels, sabotaged by the collapsing health delivery system and the general decline in living standards.

A skills flight has taken root with independent estimates putting the number of Zimbabweans living abroad at more than four million, almost twice the population of Botswana.

Workers' earnings have become meaningless due to inflation, with professionals such as doctors living on less than US$20 per month.

The most productive age groups have been ravaged by the HIV/Aids pandemic claiming at least 2,000 lives per week.

All these issues are at the centre of the election manifestos presented to the electorate last month. While the reasons for this sorry state of affairs differ among the main contestants, none of them has disputed that the country's economy is in a terrible state. But whatever the reasons may be, the electorate has had ample time to critique these manifestos and this Saturday they must be ready to choose between President Robert Mugabe (ZANU-PF), Morgan Tsvangirai (Movement for Democratic Change - MDC) or independent presidential candidate Simba Makoni for the highest office in the land. We don't wish to waste time on one Langton Towungana.

In making that important decision this weekend Zimbabweans need not be reminded that it is their democratic right to vote for candidates of their choice.

Police Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri, Defence Forces chief Constantine Chiwenga and Commissioner of Prisons Paradzayi Zimondi may have their own views about the elections, right or wrong, but it is just that - views, period.

Tsvangirai, Makoni and President Mugabe have traversed the width and breadth of the country in the past four weeks canvassing support and one hopes that by now the electorate is better positioned to pass an appropriate verdict in the March 29 polls.

While Zimbabweans would have wanted the major contesting parties to go into the polls at full strength, they have all been weakened by internal conflict. The MDC goes into the elections fragmented after the October 2005 split while the ruling party, although it may not want to admit it, is at sixes and sevens following an internal rebellion led by Makoni and ZANU-PF politburo member, Dumiso Dabengwa.

It means therefore, that apart from the benefit of incumbency all the contestants take to the battle for State House on equal footing.

The onus is on the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to spare the suffering masses the agony of another disputed election by ensuring that the Saturday polls are conducted in a free and fair environment so that the outcome could be accepted by all.

ZEC and the observers invited to assess the conduct of the elections owe it to Zimbabweans to give them the opportunity to speak at the weekend polls and speak they will.

But whoever emerges victorious should rise above the politics of attrition, hate and revenge by embracing the true meaning of democracy, which demands co-existence notwithstanding the divergent views, race, tribe or creed.

The post March 29 environment should lay a strong foundation upon which Zimbabweans from across the political divide begin to lay the building blocks for a brighter future. May the best man win!

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