Did you know that since 15 July, ZTV’s given Zanu PF 90 minutes (favourable) coverage, and MDC-T 10 minutes (mostly negative).
- Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe

It is always refreshing watching what you can only interpret as genuine zeal to better a politically and economically wounded country, this is despite some of that enthusiasm bordering on what can only be described naïve optimism.

Yet in a time like this, optimism can be the only thing to have.

That’s the sense I got when I attended the Women in Politics Support Unit-led Why Vote for a Woman series in Harare yesterday where female candidates got to stand in front of other women and take questions on why they think they deserve the people’s vote.

Most of the female candidates who spoke at one such platform were eying office as councilors, and local government issues of service delivery naturally became their focus.

The passion was astounding as female candidates from MDC, MDC-T, UDM, Zanu PF stated their cases, much to the applause of the virtually all-female crowd who had an opportunity to fire questions at the candidates.

The fact that this was a mix of political parties under one roof articulating issues pertinent to women was refreshing considering the kind of sparring we have seen on the national stage among men who see themselves as entitled to our vote one way or the other.

A contribution from the floor did make some pause to reflect on the push for more women to take up public office, with the question: “is it mere breasts and vaginas we want to take to parliament or issues?” and this was apparently asked in reference to what was felt were poorly formulated responses to questions about what exactly of value these candidates were bringing to public office.

Yet my humble submission would be not to judge the women candidates too harshly, like their male colleague, they also must start somewhere, and a chap sitting next to me actually commented that it is time women got their time in the sun as public officials, adding that “at least women are not as corrupt as men.”

Another “well-meaning” stereotype perhaps, but the fact that someone could actually make such a comment does indeed say a lot about the need for leadership renewal in this country.

Minister of Minister of Labour and Social Welfare Paurina Mpariwa was there to provide inspiration, and the jolly crowd certainly forgot they were from different political backgrounds and it was the kind of thing that political parties always waffle about but see no need to practice.

Like one candidate declared: “ITS NOT A MAN’S WORLD SISTAZ, ITS A WOMAN’S WORLD.”

And these are issues of gender and class Zimbabwe has to grapple with. These elections offer that opportunity.

As we approach the home run in the final stretch of the 2013 harmonized elections the talk of a grand coalition among political parties will just lead us to another blame game in the face of defeat. Looking back at how the two MDC parties have worked together in the inclusive government will tell you the that the relation wasn’t rosy at all so efforts to forge an alliance at this ninth hour are just futile. The only time these two parties teamed up was during the election of Speaker of Parliament and after the relationship went sour especially when then Ncube faction was embroiled in its own succession battle with the then leader Arthur Mutambara. Legislators from MDC-N were expelled from the party faction when they crossed floor to join Mr Tsvangirai’s faction. We later heard reports of the leaders of the unity government teaming up together and having closed door meetings singling out Welshman. In Maputo a grandstanding was staged at an SADC meeting when Tsvangirai and Ncube tried to humiliate President Robert Mugabe.

Just when people thought that the relationship had normalized the two leaders started their election campaigns by trading insults at each other, with Tsvangirai boasting of a huge support calling Ncube a village politician bent on peddling tribal politics. This tirade has turned out to be like a “dissing” contest at a rap concert. The lack of tangible policies in this year’s campaign is a clear sign of how politicians are trying to fill gaps in election manifestos with insults. If we are going to elect a leader should we base that on how eloquently the candidate disrespects opponents like a recent campaign advert I heard on radio about Tsvangirai’s sex life which is being peddled by ZANU-PF.

The Zimbabwe Democracy Institute (ZDI) yesterday became the latest in a string of CSOs to launch an adverse report on the July 31 poll, highlighting the flaws that have bedeviled the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission’s preparations.

ZDI launched Electoral Battleground: Voters Roll Rigmarole, which I thought was a play on the rigging apparatus Zanu PF has already put in place!

And indeed it has been endless talk about the country’s preparedness, or lack thereof, to hold such an important national process, with Zanu PF’s insistence coming under scrutiny and wide speculation that the “revolutionary party” already has a poll outcome in its favour, and most disturbingly, in collusion with ZEC.

Yet ZDI insists on the vigilance of not only itself but other CSOs working for a better Zimbabwe.

But with Tobais Mudede fashioning himself as the sole custodian of the voters’ roll, the ZDI remains awake to the fact that this has become the arena where Zanu PF will cook the numbers to rig the poll.

And like many critics of these rushed elections, ZDI raises concerns of the flawed reading of the pre-election conditions which so far have seen little or no violence as a template to give these polls as clean bill of health.

The rigging machine has been re-fashioned, and only yesterday, a senior South African government official actually made reference to the violence-free atmosphere as reason not to condemn the poor preps plaguing the ZEC.

Among many issues the ZDI report raises is the disenfranchisement of millions by deliberate exclusion from the voter’s roll through the frustrating voter registration exercise, the role of the security apparatus where the report comments that “ZANU-PF and the military have proven to be inseparable” and also laments the arrest of human rights defenders and raids on CSOs.

These are concerns that have been raised before, and as the election beckons next Wednesday, all these remain unresolved, and the logical “therefore” is a poll that does not meet the benchmarks of normal practices.

Only today, we read from Patrick Chinamasa that poll funding had been secured from domestic resources, and we long thought it was finance Minister Tendai Biti’s mandate to make such an announcement!

But as Pedzisai Ruhanya, the ZDI director said, “We are not here to cause chaos; we are here to manage ZEC chaos.”

And one needs not be a clairvoyant to foresee mayhem on July 31.

Today’s Herald announces “Govt secures poll funding.” Given that elections are in less than a week, that’s lucky I suppose. The article says “domestic resources mobilised,” and mentions “US $ 85 million released.” Phew. I knew all that diamond money would come in handy someday.

Meanwhile, the late access to election funding is just one more way in which this election is a mess before we’ve even voted. And yet shockingly, the African Union looks and says “Nothing gives us any cause for concern.”

There are 5 days till Zimbabwe’s Harmonised Election on 31 July 2013. And Nothing gives any cause for concern? Not:

• The fact that the election date itself was set in an illegal manner
• The illegal way in which the electoral laws for this election were promulgated
• The atrocious state of Zimbabwe’s voters’ roll and the disenfranchisement of Zimbabweans that will result
• The mess that was made of the special voting for the police
• Continued media bias by Zimbabwe’s state television broadcaster
• The fact that political parties still don’t have access to the final voters’ roll as promised
• The fact that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission still hasn’t issued the final list of polling stations
• The fact that POTRAZ has ordered mobile phone carriers like Econet to not carry international bulk text messages for political reasons

With a list like this what is most of concern is that the African Union doesn’t see anything of concern. Is this the low standard we have for Zimbabwean elections, and African elections more generally. As long as the violence stays minimal and the intimidation low-grade, it will do.  Never mind how many laws you break or rights you trample on along the way, our African colleagues will just turn a blind eye so it can be deemed “credible enough.”

Photographs by Linette Frewin

One of Zimbabwe’s best known singers, Chiwoniso Maraire, has died aged 37. More from the BBC here and you can share your memories of Chi on their page.