All to play for

All to play for

MAN OF GOD: Independent Langton Towungana

• Langton Towungana: one who dared

• Presidential poll winner needs 51 percent - ZEC

• New poll projects Mugabe winning election

• Chinamasa dismisses rigging claims

• 90 000 polling officers deployed

• 'Defy comnmanders' - NCA urges troops

• Mugabe says he will not concede defeat

• Mugabe warns against Kenyan-style violence

• Of dodgy pollsters and strategic leaks

• 5,9 million registered to vote in Zimbabwe

• Opposition groups raise alarm over voters' roll

• Mugabe amends electoral laws, police get role

• ANC tells Zimbabwe security forces to stay out of vote

• SADC confident of free elections in Zimbabwe

• Polling station row spills into High Court

• 1 vote every 9 seconds: the scandal of the March 29 elections

• Moyo predicts chaos on March 29

• Zim shuts door on western election obsevers

• Gwanda South, Mpopoma polls to be postponed

• 'No cardboard ballot boxes for Zim poll' - ZEC

• Cardboard ballot boxes to be used in polls

• US concerns over Zimbabwe elections

• Ambassador McGee: Building democracy - the responsibilities of the electorate

• Britain wants international observers for poll

• Moyo furious with MDC challenge

• Mugabe could face second round of voting - Moyo

• List of 2008 parliamentary and senatorial candidates

• Ncube, Khupe stake political careers on Makokoba

• Mutambara withdraws from race, backs Makoni

• Die is cast as presidential candidates file nomination papers

• Mugabe calls elections for March 29

By Gugulethu Moyo

SATURDAY'S Zimbabwe election brings to an end a remarkable journey for Robert Mugabe, Morgan Tsvangirai, Simba Makoni, Langton Towungana and their strategists.

It also concludes, for the electorate, a compelling battle for power. Two months ago, few predicted that their fight would bring out so much activism among the voters and campaigners, with such high stakes at the end.

A great deal depends now on the strength of anti-Mugabe feeling in rural areas, the effectiveness of major drives by the MDC and Simba Makoni to get out the vote against Robert Mugabe, and the final barrage of measures by the ruling party to prevent a free vote.

The best election eve analyses show that for all the candidates' exhaustive crisscrossing of the nation and blustering confidence, none is assured of an absolute majority in the electoral count.

Morgan Tsvangirai seems to have sewn-up most of the urban vote and made significant inroads into Zanu PF strongholds in the countryside, while Simba Makoni continues to draw pledges of support from die-hard Zanu PF supporters, constituencies in the Arthur Mutambara-led faction of the MDC and middle-class urbanites. Robert Mugabe, on the other hand, has been forced to cancel campaign meetings as the momentum against his continued rule grows.

Getting out the vote is considered decisive for this fiercely-contested election. Yet there are serious doubts that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is prepared for a high turnout. Independent election monitors predict that a large number of urban voters will not vote because polling posts are too few.

Others are concerned that many of those who make up the massive crowds at Morgan Tsvangirai’s rallies, young first-time voters, did not bother to register on the voters’ roll before it closed on February 14.

Some things about this campaign have been depressingly predictable. Senior ruling Zanu PF officials intimidated opposition supporters by threatening not to respect their choices.

“A vote for the opposition is a wasted vote. We will not allow it,” was President Mugabe’s message to voters in the Matabeleland constituency of Makokoba -- an unconvincing threat in a constituency where the incumbent parliamentarian has, since 2000, been from the opposition MDC.

A familiar cast of Mugabe loyalists at the head of the armed forces have also warned against a vote for opposition candidates.

But the mood appears defiant. Hyper-inflation and a disappearing economy has brought unprecedented suffering. It has also capped the Mugabe government’s capacity for the blanket patronage that purchased support in previous contests. The balance has tipped against the status-quo.

The biggest upset of this election though, may have come from Mugabe’s former Finance Minister. Simba Makoni’s challenge to Robert Mugabe ripped the cloak of invincibility off Zanu PF, distracted their strategists and jolted the Tsvangirai wing of the MDC out of complacency.

But seasoned analysts say Mugabe’s party so thoroughly controls the electoral levers that no opposition group stands a chance of dislodging him or the party. Gerrymandering, false voters lists and partisan electoral institutions all make Mugabe’s survival possible.

To be sure, it would be foolish to ignore the many signs that the contest could already be rigged. Mugabe is determined to win a final victory over his many detractors.

Whatever the result, the campaign for the presidency in its final phase has provided a gripping horse race. It has eclipsed contests for the Senate, House of Assembly and local authorities where the possibilities remain even more open. Brace yourself. Zimbabwe’s politics will be forever altered after Saturday.

Gugulethu Moyo is a Zimbabwean lawyer who works for the International Bar Association in London
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