Since Zimbabwe?s last elections, in 2005, life has gone from bad to worse for most of the country?s inhabitants. Annual inflation is the highest in the world at 100,000 per cent ? price increases on basic goods sweep Zimbabwe almost weekly, and only two in ten Zimbabwean adults have jobs.
?It?s very difficult. As I?m speaking to you right now I?m actually using candles because there is no power. I can?t cook. And when the power is there, there?s very little to cook. Mealiemeal (maize meal), which is like our staple food, is very difficult to get. People still spend days and days queuing to get mealiemeal. Other basics, like sugar and soap, you don?t find them on the shelves,? says Netsai Mlilo, a freelance reporter in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe?s second largest city.
Brendan Murphy is the chief of Voice of America?s Studio 7 Zimbabwe service. From their base in Washington D.C., he and his team of journalists ? mostly Zimbabwean exiles ? are in constant contact with people in their home country. Murphy says he doesn?t know how Zimbabweans are surviving, and how they?ll find time to vote during their daily battle to survive.
?Ten kilograms of mealiemeal costs 100 million (Zimbabwean) dollars. A liter of gas (petrol) costs 25 million dollars?. The cost of living is just astronomical for the average person. People are just looking, desperately, at these elections for a way out of that,? Murphy explains.
Mlilo says the people of Bulawayo recently rejoiced when their water supply became regular?. But their exuberance was short-lived: ?We are not sure now about the quality. The local authority says it doesn?t have enough money to buy chemicals to purify the water. Every day brings a new setback.?
And when medical emergencies strike in Zimbabwe these days, Mlilo says there?s almost never fuel to power ambulances.
Many Zimbabwean analysts, such as Sydney Masamvu of the International Crisis Group, blame the situation on the policies of their country?s 84-year-old leader.
?Under normal circumstances, there?s no chance in hell that Mugabe would win an election!? he exclaims.
International observers specifically trace the beginning of Zimbabwe?s meltdown to President Mugabe?s controversial land reform program. In 2000, the Zanu-P.F. government started confiscating commercial farms owned by white people for, in the words of the state, ?redistribution to landless blacks.? But it?s largely Mr. Mugabe?s ruling party allies, security force chiefs and veterans of the 1970s war of liberation who have benefited from being allocated extensive tracts of prime land. Agriculture has stalled, and Zimbabwe has regressed from being an exporter to an importer of food.
But President Mugabe, who has ruled the country with an iron fist since its independence from Britain in 1980, blames ?the West? for Zimbabwe?s woes. He says Britain and the United States are agitating for his overthrow so that they can put what he refers to as their ?puppets? and ?stooges? into power. Mr. Mugabe also blames the hardships suffered by his nation on U.S. and European economic sanctions, even though there are no such measures in place against Zimbabwe. The E.U. and U.S. are, however, employing ?targeted? sanctions against the president and some of his Zanu-P.F. colleagues. They?re banned from traveling to America and certain European countries, and their assets there have been frozen.
Previous polls in Zimbabwe have been rife with violence. Police brutality against opposition members and supporters has been the order of the day. Members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (M.D.C.) have been thrown into jail, beaten and allegedly tortured.
?There are growing concerns around incidents of violence and repression?. We quite expect the usual range of intimidation and violence,? says Mike Davis, an official with a civic group in the country?s capital, the Combined Harare Residents Association.
Says Blessing Zulu, a Zimbabwean journalist working with Murphy: ?We have heard reports of a number of candidates in the opposition being abducted and remanded into custody. They therefore can?t campaign. They are effectively been frozen out of the election process.?
?The environment at the moment is massively tilted in favor of the incumbent regime,? agreed Briggs Bomba, a former Zimbabwean student leader now working for the Africa Action lobby group in Washington.