So everything is feeling quite festive here in Harare the day before our Harmonised Election. The posters are everywhere, and they add so much colour to the place. There’s people in all sorts of election T-shirts everywhere, and I’m beginning to wish that every week was election week. Things just feel so much more possible.

On the road yesterday, I spotted a whole lot of MDC (Tsvangirai) graffiti, especially on the roads and on the kerbs of the roundabouts. And I wondered if the youth on the MDC spray paint team are cursing the day the MDC split – Vote MDC is just so much easier to write than Vote MDC Tsvangirai! Quicker, uses less paint, and runs you less risk of getting caught in the process. Maybe it’s high time each of the MDC factions chose their own names.

Running this morning, I noticed a $500 bill on the grass on the side of the road. Wet and abandoned, clearly not worth enough for anyone to bother picking it up. The other day, my colleague and I were distributing papers in Harare’s Avenues suburb. I spotted two $100,000 notes on top of the post boxes in one of the blocks of flats – again, so worthless it was just spare change lying there.

But if Mugabe’s biggest opponent in this election is inflation, Tsvangirai’s is the vote rigging which began long back. These elections are being held under such patently unfair and unequal conditions, they’ve been stolen before a single vote has been cast.

So, like Bev Clark was asking yesterday, what’s the plan to defend our vote? At the MDC’s rally on Saturday, Tsvangirai also stressed the importance of defending the vote. But what does that look like, really? I had my bag snatched a few years ago. I screamed like hell, I swore a blue streak at the muggers, and kicked at them when they tried to grope me as well. Imagine if we felt that passionately about protecting our vote.

One of our subscribers wrote in with this recommendation for defending the vote:

How about bombarding Mbeki, Zuma, Guebuza and other influential SADC leaders with examples of ZANU PF’s disrespect for democracy and human rights and demanding action? If hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans write or e-mail these leaders, giving examples of why they are wrong to support Mugabe in his misrule of Zimbabwe they will at least not be able to deny knowledge of the worst atrocities or to claim that these people are in power by the choice of the people of Zimbabwe, and may be persuaded to apply meaningful pressure for change.

This is a good idea, and I do have a soft spot for letter writing campaigns. But what about the campaign here? Surely the president of South Africa or Mozambique is more likely to listen to Zimbabweans’ need for change if they can see us actively doing something to express our frustration here – not simply running to outsiders for help? It’s been one of my continuing frustrations – that we turn to the courts, or South Africa, or SADC for help, rather than reclaiming our vote ourselves.

So yes, I’ve let myself get a bit swept away by the hype and the music and the colours and the anticipation. But deep down I know that, as important as 29 March is, even more important is what we do, collectively and individually, when that vote is stolen, like I know it will be.

Times might be tense here in Zimbabwe but hey, you’ve got to have a laugh – just don’t press 1 for Zanu PF. To listen to this audio spoof, click here

It’s less than 24 hours before e-day and I’m wondering to myself why I don’t feel as excited as most of my colleagues. I mean this is the mother of all elections, and the anticipation and the need for change that ought to be infectious seems to be having no effect on me. Not intending to cloud everyone else’s excitement though I’ll tell you how I feel. I have this greatest sense of foreboding. Yeah, a couple of my friends are convinced I’m just a natural pessimist but I tell you, this cloud hanging over me is so real – nothing to do with pessimism this.

Why do I feel this way? Well, I don’t know. I’m not sure whether I’m afraid of disappointment, or if by some lucky streak, “change” does hit us, will it be more of the same old? I’m kind of finding it hard to imagine that should Bob lose the election, he’d be out of State House in exactly 72hours.

I’m afraid of all kinds of things that may happen, the irony of the possibility of finally having Zimbabwe’s life president ousted, even though he swore it would never happen in his lifetime. I’ll tell you what would more ironic than that though. It is having the little known, much underestimated Langton Towungana win the presidential race.

I wonder if I’m the only one who feels strange . . .

As Saturday’s election draws closer I’ve been reflecting on our individual and collective disempowerment as Zimbabwean citizens. Take the issue of political posters for example. All over the city private businesses like fuel stations,cafes and office blocks have had (predominantly) Zanu PF posters pasted on their walls. Ordinary home owners have also experienced this. Instead of ripping these posters down and asserting their right to keep their private property free of politricking (if they so wish) Zimbabweans cower and refuse to stand up to Mugabe’s regime. I can’t imagine that many South Africans would tolerate the image of shower-head Zuma on their private property without their consent.

And then there are the taxi and bus drivers who bow to the military and the police demands for free travel on public transport.

And long queues of long suffering Zimbabweans wait patiently in line for cash while allowing men in uniform to bully their way to the front so that they get first dibs at the little cash thats available.

What will it take to end this? What will it take for Zimbabweans to demand equality and justice?

If, and that’s a big IF, there’s a change of political leadership in Zimbabwe, we need more than cosmetic political change. Tsvangirai’s campaign message has been “Morgan is More“. But we need more than Morgan; we need each and everyone of us to confront our lack of courage in keeping our politicians and civic leaders accountable. We need to stop relinquishing our power and outsourcing our social and political responsibilities.

Zimbabwe’s rehabilitation requires far more than a X on election day. It requires a change of behaviour, and a change of heart. And the maturity to demand More from ourselves as active and aware citizens.

Zimbabweans,
your future is In your hands.

What is in your pocket right now?
How many bearers are in your wallet?
Why are you not having your favorite food?

Your future is in your hands!
How much do you have in your savings account?
How do you get home after work?

Your future is in your hands!
Is your fuel-gauge working or
is your tank running empty?

Your future is in your hands!
Zimbabwe is yours forever,
it’s You who make it shine.

Your future is in your hands!
Why are you not smiling?
What’s in your refrigerator?
Why are you so low and not active?
Why are your children not at school?
Why are you not paying your rentals, fees, bills in time?

Just wake up . . .
And go to the nearest polling station in your ward and
X Vote!

The good news is that one of the regime’s water canons has broken down on Samora Machel Avenue.

The bad news is their fighter planes are buzzing Mutare.

I’ve just received this message from a student . . .

Some jet fighters are flying so low here in Mutare. Do you have any idea what is going on? We are so frightened.

As we approach Zimbabwe’s 29 March elections Phillip Pasirayi poses some fundamental questions:

“You can vote for them [MDC] but that will be a wasted vote. You will be cheating yourself as there is no way we can allow them to rule this country. The MDC will not rule this country. It will never ever happen.”
- President Robert Mugabe, March 2008

We will be naive to still think that the impending Saturday election in Zimbabwe will be free and fair and in conformity with the SADC Guidelines governing democratic elections to which Zimbabwe is a State Party. The above epigraph from the octogenarian Mugabe means that the election is already fixed and that Mugabe’s surrogates at the so-called National Command Centre will announce Mugabe as the winner. It is time that pro-democracy and civic groups start preparing for civil disobedience and demand the restoration of their vote. The civic movement must increase pressure that will make it difficult for Mugabe to govern and prepare the ground for referral of the Zimbabwe case to the UN Security Council. Already the humanitarian catastrophe in Zimbabwe warrants Zimbabwe’s referral to the UN and this flawed election presents a unique opportunity that must act as a precipitant for UN intervention.

Zimbabweans have been through a number of rigged elections and stolen votes. Each time we’ve seen a complete lack of leadership from the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) when the results have been announced.

Will the MDC’s response to this election be any different?