Reports received that several voters are not on the voting rolls where they were expected. This means they cannot vote in their constituencies, and are expected to attend thousands of kilometers away. This makes it impossible for them to vote.

Reports in also that there is a heavy presence of security personnel observing who is going in and out of polling stations.

The ballot paper is also confirmed as problematic, ZANU PF candidates are in bold, and easily identified, candidates from other parties are blurred or not easily identified.

Zimbabwe Solidarity Forum

I went to get some fuel on my way to the office this morning. The petrol attendent asked me whether I’d voted and I said no. He spent the next 5 minutes telling me passionately why I should go vote and why my vote was important. He didn’t seem particularly worried about the vast rigging that’s been taking place, instead he felt that the will of the people would trump any electoral trickery. He also said that it just wasn’t right that a 90 year old man should be governing Zimbabwe. One of his most uplifting observations was that Zimbabwe belongs to us – its citizens – and not the power toting politicians who have chosen to turn Zimbabwe into their personal playground. Finally I said, so what happens when Mugabe claims victory; what then? He said that a Mugabe victory is just not possible this time.

Vince Musewe reminds Zimbabweans that we have a major role to play in keeping our politicians accountable and our electoral process credible. We must not accept a flawed election:

Zimbabwe’s 4th Chimurenga; a battle of ideas and not guns

As Mugabe sleeps on the bed he has created, so, must those that have been complicit in creating that bed.

It is incontrovertible that, when leadership ceases to be sensitive to the needs and aspirations of its followers, the followers will rebel and choose those leaders whom they think are most likely to represent their aspirations.

The art of leadership, therefore, is the ability to anticipate and understand the shifting trends, opinions and aspirations of the people you may seek to lead, and then act to meet those needs otherwise, one will be rendered irrelevant.

By criminalizing open dialogue, criticism, freedom to associate and stifling personal liberties, as a leader, you inadvertently starve yourself from information on new ideas and trends, which are critical for you to continue to be an effective leader. Inevitably that vacuum, is then filled by informers, spies and charlatans who manufacture and manipulate the information you get so that they may continue to gain favor from you.

That eventually makes you irrelevant as you become unaware and uninformed of the true reality on the ground. You can be then are perceived as insensitive to the needs of your followers and incompetent, no matter what good you may have done in the past.

That is the bed Mugabe has made and must now sleep on it. The use of violence and coercion, to force Zimbabweans to agree with his ideas has not created a loyal followership, but an unwilling and anxious people who will at the first opportunity they get to vote, dismiss him from power.

This is the reality that those in the military, the police and intelligence services have help him to create but are refusing to accept the inevitable consequences. As Mugabe sleeps on the bed he has made, so, must those that have been complicit in creating that bed.

The 4th chimurenga has arrived; it is a battle of ideas about the future and cannot be won through the use of a gun as was the 3rd.

I think this should be instructive to those that are seeking political power in Zimbabwe. Our politics have to change, and the relationship between the governing and the governed has to be based on respect. In order for that to happen, it is up to all of us Zimbabwean citizens to realize that as long we remain quiet and unconcerned, we are bound once more, to afford an opportunity for our leadership to abuse our vote.

I expect that we will insist that it cannot be business as usual when a new government comes into power. No longer must we expect them to shape our future without our participation. No longer must we allow them to prescribe solutions to our problems while ignoring what we think should happen.
We will need to be activists to breathe life into a new participative democracy enshrined in our new constitution. Zimbabweans can no longer be spectators in their own country nor should they be afraid.

The opening of the media space is going to be critical for this to happen. Zimbabweans have, in the past, been starved of new information that they could have used to think and act differently. This created a sense that there is no outside to ZANU (PF).

The repetitive narrative that has been regurgitated in state media sought to create conformity based on lies and the manipulation of events through the media, to justify a centralized political system with no new ideas about the future. It justified the continued political and economic domination of many by a few.

The suffering we have endured must surely be a lesson to all of us that, as long we remain passive our circumstances will not change.

In my opinion, freedom comes with responsibility and I doubt that most of us are aware of the power we have to change our circumstances.

Vince Musewe is an economist based in Harare. You may contact him on vtmusewe [at] gmail [dot] com
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“I have said it and I have said it again and I am beginning to sound like a broken record now, but these elections are illegal, illegitimate, immoral, unfree and unfair.” – Tendai Biti speaking to Al Jazeera

It’s polling day in Zimbabwe’s harmonised election, and Kubatana has been receiving more updates from our subscribers. Get more election information at our special index page on the 31 July election.  You can also check out our crowdmap of citizen reports and read more vox pops here, here and here.

• I am waiting for a big day from Chimanimani
• Pane kusawirirana pawepo kuNyanga  zanu pf  nenyaya yemagwere (There is some misunderstanding in Magwere Zanu-PF, Nyanga)
• Hi, I live in Mbare. I have just received the water, sewer and refuse bill! So Chombo’s promise to cancel these is just hogwash.
• Zec nezanu vaneuttsinye those  registerd to vote were deployed where they cant vote vanogara kwavaigona kuvota vakanyimwa mabasa.manje takatopanduka chose. (ZEC and Zanu are evil. Those who are registederd to vote were deployed where they cannot vote.)
• ZEC has betrayed most polling officers by deploying us outside our wards yesterday, how then are we going to vote. Beitbridge
• I am a mdc-t  staunch supporter. I was greatly disturbed yesterday midnight by messages i received from zanu pf on my  netone line. I was persuaded to vote mr r g mugabe. My question is how did zanu pf got my cell numbers. I know the culprit is netone. May zimbabweans remind netone that it is illegal. I also witnessed it during referendum.
• Bulk sms sending was banned till after the elections bt i received a political msg on my phone. Shouldn’t i sue the network provider? I hear a lot of pple received the same msg too! Seems we have sacred cows!
• Today Zimbabweans are making a mark for their destiny. I have done my part in Kwekwe Central.
• Voted at Kuwadzana 6 Primary, Harare all is well, queues moving fast, many people voting.
• Harare: Courtney Selous 104 places down the queue. Approx 300 ish. Single file mostly. Quiet. Chisi School Friend is 10th in queue.
• KUMAKONI SOUTH mamwe mastations ene very few presidential ballot papers
• No netone to netone One hr talk untill hameno…. No Telcel to Econet call untill hameno. Econet internet is so and so . Whatsup inteferences untill hameno. Who is to be blamed .  No electonic voters roll until hameno.  No education untill hameno. Today zesa was up and down and who is to be blamed kwanzi nerimwe bato masanctions. Hahahahaha

Election time is always an opportunity for media hacks to practice a bit of creative writing and come up with that they imagine are funky headlines, puns and even shocking claims, never mind that many have been left ruing their creativity after the elections sprung shocks they wouldn’t have imagined.

Because Zimbabwe’s politics have been defined through very false black/white right/left dichotomies, this has been enough to have any writer or news outlet who favours one particular party to stretch their imagination despite all evidence to the contrary.

It is in news writing where clairvoyants would come in handy as part of the newsroom team!

While not exactly a news item, the International Relations and Security Network (ISN) carried an opinion piece headlined: “Mugabe Likely to Win Elections, But Who Will Lead Zimbabwe Next?” and it is one of those analyses which when you read it, raises questions about the logic of going to elections in the first place when the winner has already been determined. One has to live on the streets of Zimbabwe’s major cities to get a pulse of what such scenarios would mean in the event the people’s will is subverted.

Another local opinion piece carried by Newsday and written by MDC-T senior official Obert Gutu titled “Why Tsvangirai will be next President”
offers another long perspective on why Mugabe long lost his relevance to Zimbabwean politics, but then that can be expected from someone whose leader is contesting against Mugabe.

Yet another headline in the same paper says “Ncube’s journey to State House” in reference to Welshman Ncube whom the Herald, most interestingly, now says is expected to “give a good account of himself as his party has moved from being a splinter group to a full-fledged political outfit.” I imagine this means the Herald is then awake to the possibility that Ncube can indeed cause a major upset and end Mugabe’s political career?

The Herald carried a story headlined “Zanu-PF has transformed lives: Mujuru” and it’s stuff that one reads and says, perhaps I have been away too long. You still get such reports despite these being the same people who have begged President Sata for maize to feed starving millions here, but then in election time, voters are not expected to question such wild claims! And newsmen and women simply regurgitate the speechifying without reminding the speaker of the painful irony of such claims. But then that would mean losing your job!

Of course I found it strange that The Herald would run a story that was lifted from the Guardian (UK) that ostensibly predicts a Mugabe victory where the British paper cites Simon Khaya-Moyo saying rather laughably about Mugabe: “He is a very strong man. He will serve as long as people want him to serve.”

Or from Blessing-Miles Tendi, “a political analyst who has attended seven of the rallies” whom the Guardian quotes: “Mugabe is good at recreating himself depending on the national and international dynamics of the time. That’s why he has lasted so long.” Really?

The Herald also picks a story from the Independent (UK) titled “Odds stacked against Morgan Tsvangirai as Robert Mugabe scents victory in Zimbabwe” and chooses to ignore the sidebar: “Odds stacked against Tsvangirai as opposition candidates are harassed and fake voter registration appears widespread.”

The same Independent has another story headlined: “Fear and optimism mix as people face into another Mugabe-rigged election.” Just to lift one paragraph from that piece: Little wonder that for all their usual threats, abuse of patronage and ballot-rigging, Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party was trounced in 2008. Mugabe was, reportedly, ready to stand down. Instead, the generals and goons who really run the country and rip off its resources unleashed a campaign of extreme violence while they fiddled the vote to keep their man in power. I would like to see the Herald quote that!

An editorial comment in South Africa’s Timeslive titled “Zimbabweans must accept that freedom is not easily won” The comment continued: “With many seeking a better life abroad instead of working at home for the change they want, we are likely to have a Zimbabwean problem for years to come. It is said that the day the citizenry is willing to suffer for a better tomorrow is the day their fortunes will turn for the better. Have Zimbabweans reached that stage? Are they willing to roll up their sleeves to shape their tomorrow? South Africa and other countries that have fought oppression and mismanagement by a few went through a painful process to achieve their desired outcome. Zimbabweans should be prepared to do the same.”

But this drew outrage from readers with one writing under the headline: “SA is complicit in Mugabe’s tyranny” that “Zimbabweans have demonstrated their opposition to the tyranny of Robert Mugabe often enough, only to be subjected to brutal repression by the security apparatus, leaving many dead and maimed, and others homeless.”

The writer added: “As long as the African Union, the South African Development Community and our own government turn a blind eye to intimidation and accept the flawed outcome of the elections Zimbabwe will continue on its downward spiral.”

Newsmen and women are surely being kept busy by this election!