Harare — Polling in Zimbabwe got off to a brisk, but confused, start on Saturday as long lines of voters queued to cast their ballot in a landmark presidential election, following a two-month campaign marred by violence and allegations of intimidation.
The incumbent president, Robert Mugabe, 78, is fighting to hold onto power after 22 years in office. The man who has vowed to unseat him, and bring change to Zimbabwe, is the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Tsvangirai turns 50 on Sunday, the second and final scheduled day of the weekend vote, and said he would cast his ballot then: "I'm voting tomorrow. If people give you a birthday present, that is a great thing isn't it?" Tsvangirai told allAfrica.com as he conducted a whistle stop tour of polling stations in the capital, Harare, one of the urban strongholds of the MDC.
He was enthusiastically welcomed by supporters and had to put his hands to his lips to quieten them, as they chanted "change, change" and broke out into loud cheering, giving the open-palm, splay-fingered MDC sign to their leader.
Tsvangirai said he was pleased with the turnout, but unhappy that the authorities had reduced the number of voting centres in Harare. Tsvangirai called for an extension of the election period, by at least one day, to allow everyone to vote. "This situation is untenable. Mugabe is trying to move the goalposts to disenfranchise people, these people he thinks will vote against him. You can see yourself where the support of the people is, but they are being frustrated. Eventually, they will just abandon this or, at worst, they will just be clashing amongst themselves. "
Tsvangirai said this was a deliberate effort and pre-planned obstruction by Mugabe's government to confuse people and put them off voting. "The intention is very, very clear. But nevertheless we hope that people will be patient enough and wait on those queues. The turnout is impressive."
He blamed the institutions running the elections for 'organizational inefficiencies' and said his party had warned early that the relevant authorities were not ready or prepared to handle such a huge turnout. Tsvangirai launched a last-minute court battle to try to reverse what he says was a unilateral government decision to change election regulations.
The opposition has also complained that some of its voting officials have not been given access to polling stations, so that they may monitor the ballot. On Saturday evening, there were reports that police had fired tear gas to break up a disturbance, injuring 12 people, at a voting centre in the west of Harare. There were other reports of confusion and disorganization in the capital, but little violence.
Mugabe himself voted on Saturday, but after being vocal and defiantly confident of victory at his final campaign rally on Friday, he said little to the media as he cast his ballot in Harare. The president again accused his main rival, Tsvangirai, of being a stooge of the British government and a puppet of Zimbabwe's white minority.
Huge numbers of voters rose early and queued in darkness before dawn in Harare. Some had been there through the night. As the day wore on, they waited patiently under grey skies, some wrapped in blankets against the early morning chill, saying they were determined to vote, come what may.
Later on Saturday, queuing at a polling station at St Mary's Community Hall in Chitungwiza constituency in the capital, Mazwachidi Kunashora, 25, an unemployed and articulate high school leaver, told allAfrica.com that he had been looking for a job since 1995 and would be voting for change and for Tsvangirai.
"Just look at me, I'm living from hand to mouth, wearing donated clothes. I am just reduced to begging, to being a destitute, a squatter who sleeps and feeds from the dustbin. And yet I'm called a son of Zimbabwe," said Kunashora.
"Our present government is doing us rubbish, especially that man who says he is the president of this country [Mugabe]," Kunashora added with passion. "He is just a stupid man, you know, a monster. I will never vote for a monster to be my president, because he has killed my life, he has killed my mother's life and my father's life."
In contrast, Kunashora described Tsvangirai as a saviour, a "biblical Moses", "the one that was sent by God to deliver the people of Zimbabwe from the hand of a dragon. That man is going to take Zimbabwe out of its problems right now, and start living a better life. He is the people's choice."
Further up the line, Ireen, a 33 year old unemployed single mother of 4, was also queuing to vote "for change". She did not wish to disclose the name of the presidential candidate she would elect, but had plenty of other pressing matters she wanted to discuss with reporters, including the vexed issue of land reform.
"Certainly I am going to vote for change, because I can't secure a job. I want change. As a single mother I can do everything for my children, as long as I can secure a job. Maybe with Morgan Tsvangirai we can have more jobs. There is nothing wrong with Robert Mugabe, he is a good president, only you have to change, you know."
Ireen, carrying her 10 month old baby boy, Phanashe, said she agreed with Mugabe's land reform plan, but that this should be done "securely"; others in the line used the word "orderly". In the past two years, pro-Mugabe activists calling themselves 'war veterans' of the liberation struggle for independence - have forcibly occupied mainly white-owned farms, prompting international condemnation of the Zimbabwe government for doing nothing to stop the seizures.
Ireen said "each and every individual should have land, the white people and the black people, as long as you know how to plant and do everything on the farms." She said that what black Zimbabweans lacked was the machinery to make the land profitable.
Way behind Ireen in the line, Masline Magumise, 42, also jobless, waited serenely to vote. "I am a widow, I am suffering. Life is hard for me, I don't have someone to help me because I am a widow. I have 5 children, some are at school, some are at home. No money for school fees. We are suffering too much." Magumise said she had tried selling tomatoes to make money, but most ended up rotting.
She lamented the food shortages that have hit the country, describing her hunt for cooking oil, sadza (the cornmeal food staple in Zimbabwe) and other essential foods. Magumise told allAfrica.com that her economic woes had worsened over the past four years, mirroring Zimbabwe's slow decline into economic stagnation.
Without revealing who she was about to vote for, Magumise had this message for both President Mugabe and his rival, Morgan Tsvangirai. "We want a good life, food to eat. We widows need money to help ourselves and school fees for our children so that we can have a good life. That's all. That is what we want, that is my message. I think that is possible in Zimbabwe."
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
In Harare, acknowledged as a stronghold for the opposition, random questioning of voters at ten polling stations uncovered only one voter prepared to say she would vote for President Mugabe.
Pauline Pasipanodya, a 32 year old mother of five, including twin babies, has spent much time away from the city at the Mozambican border, selling buckets and dishes. She arrived at the polling station in Mbare at 6am and, by the time allAfrica spoke to her, had been there for three hours, with one two month old twin strapped to her back.
Asked who she was going to vote for, she laughed: "I'm going to vote for it to stay the same. There is no use to change the president. If 'the change' [Tsvangirai] comes, he won't change anything. Things would remain like this."
Asked whether she wasn't worried by food shortages, she said: "There's a big problem of shortages - of mealie meal, sugar, salt and everything. But the problem of sadza is because there is drought this year. If the rain rains, there will be good conditions. We don't blame the government. the problem is because of the drought, not because of the government."
Asked whether she had considered voting for the opposition leader, Tsvangirai, she responded, "I don't know much about him. I'm always busy with my business, I have no time for politics."
Scheduled voting for the presidential poll, as well as local and mayoral elections in some areas, continues through Sunday. The government says it expects results on Monday.
