ZIMBABWEANS GO TO THE POLLS - MUGABE IN AGAIN?

Zimbabweans are at polling stations today to elect not only a President, but Members of Parliament, senators and local councillors with the most treasured seat that of the Presidency attracting the most attention. Even as the campaign ended, opposition members were already crying foul insisting that the Mugabe government had already put in place structures that would ensure his continuing grip on power. Allegations ranged from electoral lists filled with ghost names to creating an atmosphere of fear for opposition supporters.

The BBC's Grant Ferrett reporting from a nearby country (the BBC is banned) says even before the first booths were opened in the capital Harare, long queues were already snaking their way on this sunny day as many determined voters made their choices. He says the initial scenes were of order and non-violence unlike in the past.

Today's vote is crucial as the outcome is bound to reflect on Mugabe's continuing hold on power and what this has meant to this potentially rich country's economy with the BBC noting that Mugabe now presides over a nation whose economy is in tatters, where poverty and unemployment are endemic and political strife and repression commonplace.

There are speculations that despite assurances of loyalty to Mugabe by the security chiefs, all is not assured - otherwise why would Mugabe be shown on global television handing out tractors and other gifts to party supporters on the eve of the polls?

If Mugabe was so sure of his position even within his own ZANU-PF, there would be no need for that and watchers of the Zimbabwe scene say that with the life of the ordinary Zimbabwean now hanging on a rather precarious line, even die-hard ZANU-PF supporters are beginning to question Mugabe's position after nearly thirty years.

Police chief Augustine Chihuri is quoted on Friday on the eve of the polls as saying that security and defence forces had been put on full alert. Chihuri stated that his officers and men "would not allow declarations of victory before official results were announced" and these would not be made known until after several days.

"May we remind everyone that those who think and do evil must fear, for the defence and security forces are up to the task in thwarting all threats to national security," he told a news conference, flanked by army and security chiefs warning that those who were thinking of a Kenya-style opposition series of demonstration must wipe that off their minds.

Indeed the main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has advised his supporters not to embark on such a risky venture that would put lives and limbs at risk and has instead called for a massive turn-out at the polls so that they can push Mugabe aside without the use of an excuse for a crackdown by the government on the opposition.

The opposition this time is not only represented by the MDC of Tsvangirai, but by the former ZANU-PF loyalist who until a couple of months ago was Mugabe's very own Finance minister, Simba Makoni. There are suggestions that he could represent a breakaway group within the heart of ZANU-PF and could well enjoy the support of those within the party who want to nudge Mugabe from the top seat.

It is to be recalled that despite Mugabe's sabre-rattling and dire warnings to the opposition, his own position within his party has become shaky and not only from the defection of Makoni, but that even his own chosen Vice Presidents are unhappy with the way he's been running things as well as the way the West has been reacting to top officials with travel bans in place.

Vice President Joyce Mujuru has long been rumoured to have Presidential ambitions and it has been said that Mugabe could not take any action against his ambitious Vice President for fear that he risks an open confrontation with his inner circle and hence warrant a palace coup. Joyce Mujuru is the wife of the former head of the army Solomon Mujuru thought to have been implicated in one money-making scandal or the other but enjoys the support of the old guard as the real man who organised and actively led the freedom struggle when Mugabe was somehow ineffective.

The other Vice President Joseph Msika is a compromise Nkomo ZAPU loyalist in his eighties and prone to health problems who still insists that ZANU-PF must stop telling the world about what he calls "lies about the liberation struggle" and would want the accounts put straight.

According to the internet encyclopaedia Wikipedia, Msika has consistently dismissed Mugabe's past apology for the 1987 Gukurahundi killings, condemned internationally for the violence it unleashed on mainly rural Ndebele, at a rally in October 2006 in Bulawayo. "When we asked him about the massacres he apologized, but I was not convinced about his sincerity," he said

Zimbabwe was formally accepted into the family of the then OAU, the Organisation of African Unity at the 1980 summit in Freetown hosted by Sierra Leone under then President Siaka Stevens.

Zimbawean students were a regular feature on the Sierra Leone educational canvas with many taking up studies at higher institutions and it was not uncommon to witness weekend brawls involving various political party supporters.

Sierra Leone has also played hosts to such political giants like Joshua Nkomo and the Rev Sithole.

It was Mugabe who as Chairman of the OAU publicly condemned the May 25 1997 coup of Johnny Paul Koroma and who called for the non-recognition of a coup he described as a setback for democracy in Africa sic - "We (the OAU) unanimously and unreservedly condemn the coup d'etat in Sierra Leone as an enormous setback for democracy in Africa.

This is for the President Ernest Bai Koroma's new-found "friends" and "patriotic" cliquewho have been pushing themselves into positions of favour despite being unqualified for such posts. These are the "gbatolites" of a similar nature of the President Kabbah days who see no wrong in the new occupant of Sierra Leone's top seat. Their recent mantra is what could only pass as a gimmick in talking about ministers signing contracts with the President!!!

And one more - take a good look at opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai after he was beaten up by Mugabe security forces. Mugabe is reported to have said that he deserved the beating.... Tom Nyuma in Bo hospital after attack by Leatherboot and company - Photo: AWOKO

Tom Nyuma in Bo hospital after attack by Leatherboot and company - Photo: AWOKO

And think of Tom Nyuma after he was beaten and robbed by President Koroma's own personally-chosen bodyguard Idrissa Kanu (Leatherboot) and others of his ilk in pre-elections violence in Bo in 2007.

Voters wanted change in the political leadership. In Sierra Leone, they succeeded in getting rid of the rather corrupt, vindictive, uncaring and arrogant Tejan Kabbah administration. What they ushered in?.....You decide. Meanwhile in Zimbabwe, can they really do it like voters in Sierra Leone did?