All indications are that for Zanu PF it is business as usual as Zimbabwe goes into elect ions on 29 March. It is the same old story. True to the script, the Police Commissioner-General, Augustine Chihuri has allegedly come out and instructed the police to back Mugabe’s candidature; the head of Prisons, Paradzayi Zimondi, issued a similar command to prison officers. Stories of routine harassment of students, WOZA, NCA and MDC activists abound. Simba Makoni has also tested the full measure of Zanu PF’s intolerance as he is receiving only negative coverage from state media and has had his rallies disrupted by the police. The Herald continues, true to form, to denigrate and vilify all opposition while glorifying Zanu PF mediocrity.

Nothing has changed in terms of the laws or the attitudes of people running state institutions to warrant a different expectation come 29 March. Therefore, barring a miracle of biblical proportions, the result of the 29 March will simply be a repeat of the past elections of 2000, 2002 and 2005. For this reason l feel that we must begin to think outside the ballot box and critically consider other viable options. When the election was stolen in 2002 plan B was to challenge the electoral fraud before the courts. Sadly, but not unexpectedly, our severely compromised judiciary dilly-dallied in handling the cases and effectively rendered any remedy of no use or effect. After 29 March elections, going to the courts is not a viable option – considering past experiences and a knowledge that a significant portion of the judiciary has directly benefited from the patronage of the state and has lost the last shred of impartiality.

A viable back up plan in the (very likely) event of electoral fraud is to ensure, within legal and constitutional means, that Zimbabwe is rendered ungovernable. We must be ready to defend and reclaim the vote by way of a mass presence on the streets of Zimbabwe. For this to work, the police and army, who are suffering just as much under the current government, must desist from using heavy-handed methods on the people. My appeal to the army and police is that, when the order to shoot at the people is given, they must simply refuse to obey such a command, so that electoral fraud can effectively be challenged without turning Zimbabwe into a Kenya scenario. An appeal to the international community would be that, unlike its intervention in Kenya which occurred only after more than 1000 lives had been lost, their involvement in Zimbabwe should occur as soon as it becomes apparent that electoral fraud has taken place.

Eight years ago, Cynthia Boaz, assistant professor of political science and international studies at the State University of New York, found herself “telling a passionate, proactive, socially conscious student that his choice to vote for Ralph Nader in the 2000 presidential election was both irrational and counterproductive. I heard myself suggesting that in the future he seriously think about sacrificing his principles for a little common sense. I was suppressing my usual idealism for the skepticism wrought by the bleak reality of American presidential elections.”

She is referring here to the American electoral college system which makes it impossible for an independent candidate to win an election. The result was that Nader split the opposition vote, Gore lost and George W Bush was foisted upon mankind. Now let’s turn our gaze homeward.

Our election pits two opposition candidates against the incumbent. This argument assumes that if you are reading this, you are not in the 21st February movement. That leaves you with two candidates: Simba Makoni and Morgan Tsvangirai. You, of course have the right to choose the candidate of your choice. It is the making of your choice, though that I would like to discuss.

Since Zimbabwean society has not yet got to the stage of deliberately spoilt ballots to make a non-point, it is safe to say that many of you had a choice before the election date was even announced. Your choice was anything but RGM. The problem with “anything but RGM” is you may or may not have ended up with a Frederick Chiluba as none other than Dumiso Dabengwa was quoted as pointing out in The Standard on Sunday. That, up to now, was a real possibility since Morgan Tsvangirai has been accused of various un-democratic tendencies by his erstwhile closest colleagues. We have also seen him prevaricate between participating in elections – the Senate fiasco – and making a power grab – agreeing to participate in the Presidential election. What has changed? We have seen him try and create space for his new found friends and their spouses in the Women’s Assembly fiasco while he asks RGM to take the plank of cronyism out of his eye. This was our anything but.

Now there is a new kid on the block, although he has been around for a while and has the experience that Hillary Clinton boasts of (not that it will help her). He is a proven moderate (does not make statements like “Mugabe will be out by Christmas” or “we will remove you violently”). He is a seasoned administrator and is respected internationally. For instance, he would not fall for a Ben Menashe. So now you have a real choice between two opposition candidates.

I must point out that Morgan has “suffered” for the country but then so did RGM, and you go in Zimbabwean politics knowing you will suffer. So that cannot be held up as a yardstick for qualification for leadership. In fact, both Morgan and RGM have visited suffering on others as Trudy Stevenson and Dumiso Dabengwa will readily testify. Everyone has “died” for Zimbabwe.

So what is the common sense decision? To go for your original choice of “anything but” for President or for the reasoned choice of the new kid on the block who represents the best possible opportunity to haul our beautiful country out of its self-inflicted mess?

Think about it.

So we’re four weeks away from the Mother of All Elections, but in some ways, the country is only barely starting to come to life around it.

IRIN News reports that you wouldn’t know there’s an election coming. And a friend of mine working out in rural Mutoko, Mashonaland East, tells me “there hasn’t been much talk of it out in the sticks here.”

At the shops by our office here, Zanu PF posters have been up for weeks. They look exactly like they did last time around. Same old picture of Cde Bob in his Chimurenga gear, same stark design. I was joking with a friend of mine that of course Mugabe had to run as Zanu PF president again – they had all these old posters from 2002 that they have to use up!

For a while, these Zanu PF posters were the only ones around, but my colleague just came back from the bank, and she said she’d seen some MDC youths putting up posters all over the show – with an energy and enthusiasm for their work that she really enjoyed.

Meanwhile, my workmate went to Guruve in Mashonaland West on the weekend, and he found people in MDC t-shirts, and walls plastered with MDC posters the whole way from Mvurwi to Guruve – but none for Zanu PF.

Apparently MDC (Tsvangirai) Secretary General Tendai Biti reckons that “there is no government in this world which can win an election when inflation is over 100,000%, 80% unemployment and three million of its people are living abroad. Victory is certain for us.”

Tsvangirai’s crew might think that victory is certain, but it’s good to see they’re putting some effort into campaigning all the same. What’s even more certain than their victory is that this election is going to be stolen. So is the MDC ready to talk about victory? Or to work for it, come April Fool’s Day when they find it yet again snatched from under their nose.

I’ve been trying to make a bit of sense of the candidate lists for this upcoming “harmonised” Presidential, House of Assembly, Senate and local government election on March 29th. With 210 House of Assembly constituencies and 60 Senate seats up for grabs, there’s a lot of names to get one’s head around.

The official list of nominees has been published in a government gazette, but it doesn’t necessarily make much sense. In some constituencies, there are multiple candidates nominated for the same party. In other constituencies, it’s not clear which is the MDC (Tsvangirai) candidate, and which is the MDC (Mutambara) candidate. In a few places, both MDC’s have fielded candidates whom I would have considered to be quite senior, or popular, in the same place – surely this might lead to vote splitting? In other places, Zanu PF is dealing with its own issues of internal discipline. A handful of Zanu PF candidates in Masvingo, for example, have been instructed to withdraw, because the party has decided that someone else should be the candidate there. The Herald has yet to publish the complete list of nominees because, it claims, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission hasn’t released it yet. This, some suspect, is because Zanu PF is still busy trying to get some people to back down so that others can stand as the single Zanu PF candidate in a given constituency. When I phoned the ZEC to ask for the list, they said I could ask them to tell me who the candidates are in my constituency – but they wouldn’t give me the list for the whole country. What is this? A democratic election? Or a state secret?

Fortunately, there are a few moments of light relief. Like the fact that one of the candidates in Gokwe-Chireya is named Chemist. Whilst a candidate in Gokwe-Sengwa is named Cowboy. It takes all kinds.

And, curiously enough, barring the instances where there is more than one candidate listed for a given party, one constituency stands head and shoulders above the rest in terms of the most hotly contested. I asked my colleague yesterday – what constituency do you think has the most candidates? Where is it that most people want to be the MP for? Harare Central, she guessed. The seat of business and government, culture and sport. Nope. Gwanda Central. Six people are vying for the privilege of representing Gwanda in the House of Assembly. “What’s in Gwanda?” my colleague asked when I told her this. Indeed.

I am a voter. Thus far, I see a struggle for power and little to convince me that you wish to serve me and my country.

You are counting on my vote. You are counting on the fact that I am fed up with the state of the economy and the every day hell I am going through as a Zimbabwean member of the electorate. Well you must think again. I am fed up by more than that. I am also fed up with the basket case that Africa has become as its leaders continue to take its people for granted. I am fed up about the stories coming from Chad, Kenya and before that Sierra Leone, Liberia, Rwanda, Mozambique, Angola, Nigeria and just about every where in Africa. I am fed up with the raping of the African people by a power hungry elite.

I have seen what the Zambians did when they were tired of Kaunda, only to bring in a person who exacerbated their suffering, selling off the country to investors who enjoyed a business boom but left the people behind. I do not want to be left behind after 29 March. I want to vote for men and women who are serious about creating a positive sustainable future for posterity and for the country, not for people who are looking for positions so that they too can get on the gravy train. Are you worthy of my vote? The reason for the breakdown in re-unification talks in the MDC was over who would take which seats! Fighting for power before they even have it! It is a disgrace and a betrayal to the cannon fodder they used in the name of democracy and Christianity. It is a betrayal to all the youth who braved tear gas, beatings and torture over the last seven years, the older men and women who endured similar situations and more; losing their children to the oppressor’s bullet in the fight for democracy.

While I would never give my vote to Zanu PF, I am challenging you, the opposition to convince me not to withhold it from them either. My vote is sacred and I am not prepared to hand it over to an opposition that is displaying the classic symptoms of the men and women who have driven millions of Africans to despair. My heart is pained but I cannot and will not aid and abet a crime against the Zimbabwean folk. Simba Makoni and Morgan Tsvangirai; you need to take heed and take stock of what I am saying. For my suffering and the suffering of our people to finally have meaning and a purpose, you must do the right thing and present one face of the opposition. A week is a long time in politics and it is, therefore, not too late to do the right thing. The country and the people come first.

Shepherd Mandhlazi doesn’t just sit back and bleat. He writes to various newspapers sharing his opinion. He writes poetry and dramas which comment on the Zimbabwean crisis.

As Howard Zinn wrote recently

Voting is easy and marginally useful, but it is a poor substitute for democracy, which requires direct action by concerned citizens

In my book, Shepherd fits the description of a concerned citizen.

A letter of his was published recently in the Mail & Guardian – here’s a short excerpt

We have faith in Makoni even though he is Zanu PF, which the people hate. He does not display the excesses and fanaticism of his party comrades – the violence, insults, the tendency to point fingers at others when faced with problems.

And here’s a poem that Shepherd has just sent to Kubatana.

I am angry
I have heartburn
Bread, maputi – monotonous diet.

I am angry
I am fearful
I look over my shoulder
I am Zimbabwean.

I am confused
I’m counting the zeros
Is it a billion or a trillion?
I’m counting the zeros.

I am confused
What price is the bread?
Is it three million?
Is it five million?
But it was one million yesterday.

I am confused
I am Zimbabwean.
What is my crime?
Is it loving my wife
And not being able to provide for her?
Is it waving at my friend,
Or not saluting the presidential motorcade?

I am confused
I am Zimbabwean
I am bitter, I am angry.
Where is my father?
Did he run away from us?
What did he mean when he said;
They will come for me,
the revolution eats its children.

I am angry, I am bitter.
I am Zimbabwean.
Where is milk and cereal for my daughter?
Where is bacon and eggs for my wife’s breakfast?
Where is the money
for my night out with the boys?

I am angry, I am lost
I am Zimbabwean.
Why do I sweep the streets in a foreign country
my degrees in my back pocket?
Why do I jump fences
crossing into a better country?

Where is my manhood?
I can no longer feed my family.
I am not a man,
I am a Zimbabwean.

Why does he speak on my behalf,
Lies!!
I do not hate the British
I do not hate the Americans
I don’t care,
a Dube or Jones owning the land
I want food on my table.

I am hungry.
I am angry.
I am confused.
I am bitter.
I am a Zimbabwean.