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 6:06:23 PM
Are Mugabe"s Voters turning on him?
Source: Guardian (UK)
Electorate in rural areas regarded as president’s stronghold are resisting intimidation to vote for opposition
Andrew Meldrum in Muzarabani
This may be President Robert Mugabe’s stronghold but voters in Zimbabwe’s rural areas are not likely to deliver the resounding endorsement he is expecting. Voters in the Muzarabani constituency braved gangs of Mr Mugabe’s youth militia and intimidation from police and the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) to cast their ballots. In interviews with the Guardian, voters refused to declare their support for Mr Mugabe. Muzarabani, in Mashonaland Central, is considered a bastion of the ruling Zanu PF party. The number of polling stations in the constituency was increased by 82%, apparently because the Mugabe government was confident of support there. This increase in the sparsely populated area is in dramatic contrast to Harare and other cities where polling stations were reduced.
To further beef up the vote for Mr Mugabe, Muzarabani was declared a “no go” area for Mr Tsvangirai’s opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Open campaigning here was impossible and the MDC’s efforts simply to get its polling agents to monitor the voting was met with state-sponsored violence. There are signs that even here, in Mr Mugabe’s heartland, support for him is waning. Residents say that hunger and violence are the issues they are most concerned about. “I am not happy with the situation, but I voted for the candidate of my choice,” said a grey-haired peasant farmer, who was too frightened to say he supported Mr Tsvangirai. “My vote is my secret.”
“Mugabe’s militia and war veterans say they don’t want to see any MDC here and they say they will kill us,” said Peter Mukorera, 32, the MDC’s constituency chairman. “And the police don’t give us any protection. It is very rough.” Mr Mukorera was shot at, stoned and threatened with death at Utete polling station on Saturday while police stood by. Police took the keys to two vehicles he and others were using to transport party polling agents and a few hours later the vehicles were set alight by the Mugabe supporters who had a base camp next to the polling station. “I ran through the bush and I fell down twice from fright when they shot the guns,” said Mr Mukorera. “I kept running and finally slept in the bush. Later I hiked out but two of our officials are still missing.” Mr Mukorera said his home was burned to the ground six weeks ago. Two more MDC vehicles in Muzarabani were impounded by police yesterday.
The violence encountered by Mr Mukorera was part of a systematic nationwide campaign against MDC polling agents in rural areas. In Karoi, in Mashonaland West province, one MDC polling agent was beaten and drowned while another was wrapped in hay and set alight and is now in hospital, according to local residents. Other agents were beaten in nearby Banket. In Shamva, in Mashonaland East, about 20 MDC polling agents were attacked by youth militia on Friday. They got their wounds stitched up and then many returned to their pollings stations for voting on Saturday. In Honde Valley, in eastern Manicaland province, 80 MDC polling agents were illegally detained by the army and several were beaten. Four of the polling officials are still missing, according to the Human Rights Forum. In the southern area of Matabeleland, two vehicles transporting MDC polling agents were attacked and three agents are missing, according to witnesses.
The MDC estimates that more than 50% of the country’s rural polling stations have operated without the presence of any opposition representatives. Under new electoral laws decreed by Mr Mugabe last week, all other polling officials are appointed by the government, so the opposition party agents are the only guarantee that there is no ballot stuffing or other irregularities. A threatening atmosphere hung over the Gatu polling station, in Muzarabani, when I visited it yesterday afternoon. Clusters of thuggish youth militia waited around on dusty paths nearby and threatened Peter Mukorera, the MDC official I interviewed, while I was standing just a few feet away. The presiding officer at the polling station was courteous and revealed that 1,400 people had voted. But another government polling official was menacing and tried to get police to detain me. Armed officers came up and tried to detain me again when I was speaking to a local resident about the election.
Under such daunting circumstances, the MDC supporters in Muzarabani were pleased to have at least one representative in every one of the constituency’s 51 polling stations. “The courage and strength of the local MDC people has taken Zanu PF by surprise,” said Chris Pearce, a driver for the Zimbabwe Citizens Support Group which transported the MDC polling agents to the remote polling stations. “The government did not expect to see MDC officials at every polling station. They are taken aback. We feel we have won.”