Zimbabwe's Fight for a Real Democracy
by Shannon Geis
An air of excitement surrounds the citizens of Zimbabwe, despite the horrible economic conditions and hyperinflation the country is currently facing. Elections held on Saturday March 29th, 2008 are the reason for the excitement. What makes this election so exciting for the people of Zimbabwe? Zimbabwe has been an independent nation for 28 years. The man who helped to obtain the country's independence by leading the guerilla war against white supremacists has been Zimbabwe's only ruler, Robert Mugabe. The reason the Zimbabweans are so excited: this election seems to be the end of him.
The 28 years of independence haven't been bad for Zimbabwe in general and Mugabe was a decent ruler in the beginning. In fact, he helped to establish Zimbabwe as a role model for other African nations. While the economy in Zimbabwe has never been comparable to those of Western Europe or other developed countries, it did have one of the strongest economies in Africa in the 1980's and 1990's based almost completely on agriculture. Mugabe also was able to build one of the best public education systems in Africa.
Gradually, however, Mugabe's rule became more and more authoritarian as he gained more and more power for himself. In 2000, he began invading farms owned by whites and kicking them off of their property. His justification for this move was that there were only 5,000 white farmers in Zimbabwe but they owned 80% of the land. However, by kicking these white farmers out, he put thousands of black laborers out of work and gave the land seized only to his supporters. These actions sent the economy into a freefall causing an unemployment rate of 80% and forcing 3 million Zimbabweans to flee the country.
This economic downslide has been continuing for the last 8 years with conditions only getting worse. Zimbabwe currently has worst inflation rate in the world at 100,000%. The next closest is Burma with 40% inflation. To get a picture of what 100,000% inflation really means, a regular can of soda costs millions of Zimbabwean dollars. Because of the skyrocketing inflation rate and massive unemployment, the condition of life in Zimbabwe is constantly decreasing. Schools have no teachers; store shelves are empty; and hunger is endemic. Hospitals lack drugs in a country that is plagued by AIDS.
Mugabe and his authoritarian rule have created these conditions faced by Zimbabweans and perpetuated them. It is widely assumed that Mugabe has rigged the last several elections. He controls much of the media and the police force and has used both to influence the vote in his direction. In the last election he had the opposition candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, arrested and charged him with treason. Television and newspapers have been flooded with pro-Mugabe propaganda throughout the campaign.
As in the last several elections, there were strong signs that Mugabe would rig this election. Weeks before the elections, announcements of how many polling stations there would be changed by the thousands, extra ballots were said to have been printed, the police were ordered to assist voters inside polling stations, and the Central Intelligence Organization was put in charge of tallying the votes rather than the Zimbabwe Election Commission.
However, there were also many signs that this election was going to be different than the previous elections. First off, there was a third candidate running against Mugabe and Tsvangirai, Simba Mukoni. This is extremely significant because Mukoni is Mugabe's former finance minister and member of the ZANU-PF, Mugabe's party. His late entrance into the race stirred confidence in the weakness of Mugabe and his presence in the race helped the opposition immensely.
Overall, the actual polling process went smoothly and there was very minimal violence. But when it was time to find out the results, the government remained quiet. 24 hours after the polls closed there were still no results released. Most likely Mugabe realized he had been beat but his plan to keep quiet was ruined by a policy change. This year the totals for each polling place were to be posted at the polling places. When the citizens of Zimbabwe weren’t being told the results, they took it into their own hands and started adding up the totals themselves.
The unofficial results placed Tsvangirai ahead of Mugabe with 49% of the vote. Unfortunately, according to election laws, the winner must win by 50%, which means officially there should be a runoff election. Chances are if that happens Mugabe will lose. But what will he do if this truly is the case? He had hinted before the election that he would not be giving up his position peacefully. Now that his demise is a very real possibility, rumors have it that Mugabe will resign his post rather than hold a runoff election, which he has explained would be "humiliating."
But Mugabe is not one to take defeat lightly; it is clear to see that in his policies over the last 20 years. He won't be going down without a fight. Zimbabweans should rejoice because they have proved that free elections can help keep a democracy accountable to the people and maybe even oust an authoritarian ruler. But they shouldn't get their hopes up too high yet. He isn't out of office yet and this could end up being a long drawn out battle, which doesn't do much to help the remains of Zimbabwe's economy.
