WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2002-03-11 Posted By: Jan
From the News Archives of: WWW.AfricanCrisis.Org
Date & Time Posted: 3/11/2002 6:04:08 PM
Mugabe"s Rural Voters Shun Polling Stations
Source:Daily Telegraph (UK)
If they announce a high count here, then it’s a fact that the ballot boxes will have been loaded. We will all know”
By Peta Thornycroft in Harare, Tim Butcher in Matabeleland and a Special Correspondent in Mashonaland
The sight of election agents fanning themselves with voter education posters outside deserted polling stations demonstrated graphically the low turnout in President Mugabe’s strongholds in rural Zimbabwe yesterday. One polling station after another in Mashonaland was visited by a handful of voters, while election officials sat listlessly on the grass. The schools, farm buildings and local government offices that house the ballot boxes appeared abandoned. In the typical rural constituency of Hurungwe West barely 400 people voted in the 35 polling stations on Saturday, the first day of Zimbabwe’s presidential election. This seemed to have declined further yesterday. The constituency has 42,000 electors.
In Banket, Lion’s Den, Mhangura and Chinhoyi, which all returned MPs from Mr Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party in the June 2000 parliamentary elections, polling stations were similarly deserted. During those elections, queues were common. The contrast will worry Mr Mugabe and his men. If the trend is representative, the turnout in Mashonaland West province – Mr Mugabe’s home area – is unlikely to exceed 50 per cent. In 2000, the president relied on this heartland to counter-balance the rejection he suffered in the cities. This time, people living in Mashonaland suspect that the voting figures may be massaged to guarantee that Mr Mugabe achieves the majority he needs. “If they announce a high count here, then it’s a fact that the ballot boxes will have been loaded. We will all know,” said a farmer who has been monitoring the election.
The first figures from election officials did show eye-catching variations. While it was claimed that 44 per cent voted in Mashonaland East during the first day of polling, the figure for the opposition-dominated Harare district was just 14 per cent. Polling agents for Morgan Tsvangirai’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change have been unable to cover more than half the rural polling stations. The rest are virtually devoid of independent scrutiny. In some areas of Mashonaland, the government’s agents appeared to be breathing down voters’ necks. There were six reports of police entering polling booths and “assisting” voters. Police ordered whites to stay away from polling stations, explaining that their presence was “intimidatory”.
But even if Mr Mugabe has failed to mobilise his voters, the second element of this marred campaign has been going to plan. Opposition supporters were facing overwhelming problems casting their votes in the big cities, including Harare. The queues forced some voters to queue for up to 16 hours. Few managed to vote within eight hours. A polling booth in the Highfield township had queues four abreast and the average waiting time to vote was eight hours. Outside the Highfield High School was a large pile of uncollected, rotting rubbish because the city has been without a mayor and council for three years. The township has become a ghetto, and most of its occupants live in extreme poverty.
Jonathan Chinhoyi, 44, a machinist, arrived at 3.30am at one of only two Highfield polling booths. Thin, cheerful, but desperately tired, he said: “I voted for Zanu-PF in 1980, for independence. I voted for them again in 1985, in 1990, in 1995, and I voted twice before for Mugabe. Two years ago I voted for the others.” He laughed. “I don’t care if I wait here for another 224 hours,” he said. “I will vote. We must have change.” In the queue were people too tired to talk, many were fractious, yet all were determined to stay. There was also a hint of future trouble. Kiasi Sithole, 30, had abandoned the queue, and hoped to return when it shortened. “I will come back, but it is too long now. If we are not able to vote, we will take to the streets,” he said. At the Batanai Primary School, in Mabvuku, east of Harare, another decrepit ghetto, a queue filled with stoic people, hungry, thirsty, and desperately tired, some with swollen feet from standing so long. The picture was repeated in the wealthy suburb of Avondale, a mixture of some of the most elegant homes in Africa and middle-class flats. Here the queue forced many people to wait for 16 hours.
In the opposition stronghold of Matabeleland, there were reports of MDC polling agents “disappearing” on the way to polling stations; of sealed ballot boxes being reopened illegally; of armed Mugabe supporters lining up voters in groups of 10 to make sure they voted for their man. Aware that the MDC has overwhelming support in the cities, election officials simply cut by half the number of urban polling stations. It was a direct if clumsy way of reducing the urban vote, as the polling stations simply did not have the capacity to deal with the huge flow of voters, many of whom went home without casting their votes. Out in the countryside, the opposite was true. “Every other village has a polling station and how can we possibly monitor them all especially when they are moving from place to place,” one MDC activist said. “They are making it very difficult for us but we are doing the best we can.”