Zimbabwe’s vote

Poll dancing

A long-delayed election now looks worryingly hurried

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Readers' comments



There are elections in Togo and Mali this weekend. Countries much poorer and with worse democratic credentials that Zimbabwe.

Yet, western media is fine with pushing elections there but trying to hold off on Zimbabwe!

Robert Mugabe has been so good for Zimbabwe and Africa!

The West would rather he remains president that rules by decree than he goes to election as required by the constitution so he governs alongside parliament!
The West worries that an election victory legitimizes Mugabe's policies and threatens their hold on the African economy. Luckily, Zimbabweans don't have time for foolish western advise and will proceed with the constitutionally required election in 4 days time!

Tiptoeturtle in reply to Batanai

The article does not contain much in the way of solid figures covering Zimbabwe´s current economic condition.

I do not specifically or totally blame comrade Mugabe, but during his tenure the life expectancy of (Bantu) Zimbabweans has fallen from 54 years at birth to 34 years at birth. I do not know if there has been a corresponding health decline in any of Malawi, Zambia, Mocambique, Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Lesotho, Swaziland or RSA ?

I wonder if everyone will have to wait for the customary few weeks or months for an announcement of the adjusted outcome of the election ?

Batanai in reply to Tiptoeturtle

Your information is inaccurate. Zimbabwe's life expectancy was in the high 40s at independence in 1980. It then rose to the low 60s in the late 80s before is collapsed to the 34 you speak of in the late 90s.

The major driver for the fall was the exploding Aids epidemic, where Zimbabwe had the third highest rate in the world. Since adopting a very strong Aids policy and suffering from isolation from western funds that targeted Aids in the last decade, Zimbabwe has miraculously sent the disease in retreat, become the ONLY country in the world to experience a recovery from 34% infection to less than 12% in under a decade!

As of now, Zimbabwe's life expectancy has rose back up to 55 years.

Tiptoeturtle in reply to Batanai

I am not sure who is correct, there appear to be a plurality of statistics that contradict each other, viz: (quoting from a news report today)

Health and Child Welfare Minister Dr Henry Madzorera said in an interview last week that economic stability and better health delivery have seen the welfare of Zim­babweans improve.

He said malnutrition and high HIV preva­lence were major factors that precipitated the decline of life expectancy from 59,2 years in 1980 to 37 years in 2006.
However, most Zimbabweans are now expected to live beyond 37 years largely because of increased access to HIV and Aids therapy as well as better nutrition.
The global life expectancy rate stands at 69,2 years.

End of quote and back to me: I do not know where Dr Madzorera got his figures, and maybe he was misquoted by the press ?


Unless The Economist has somehow rigged the Zimbabwe elections, I do not know why Zuma is needed to help Tsvangirai assume power!

The campaign momentum in Zimbabwe today is like watching Mitt Romney against Rick Santorum! Everyone sees the battle is over, Mitt has won, but Rick still has dead-end right-wing nuts going all in for him!

It is so obvious watching Mugabe's rallies and his supporters' enthusiasm compared to Tsvangirai's largely sparse crowds (except in 3 or 4 big cities) that Zimbabweans have largely gone back to their original party, ZANU.

Even in the cities, ZANU momentum is so incredible, they might pull close to 50% of the vote there, a huge improvement from their average 17% vote in 2008!

Why does The Economist have to lie and make it look like Mugabe is imposing the elections? He lost a constitutional court case that forced him to declare a date before July 31.
What was he supposed to do?
Ignore the court order and rule by decree?

Which is of course exactly why the ZEC has printed:

8 million ballot papers
For 6 million registered voters
When only 2.5million people voted last time

Hmmm, 5.5million extra papers, I wonder what they are needed for.

By the way, if you are so confident that the urbanites have abandoned MDC, why not open up the ZBC to all parties? I mean, what's there to lose if people now have abandoned MDC?

I agree with you, there is no need to print 8 million ballots, maybe 7 million, in case some get lost or something unforeseen happens.
However, I am sure this year's election turnout will exceed 4 million. The reaction to all parties at their rallies have been tremendous. 3.4 million already voted in the low stakes referendum, it will certainly be a high turn-out with the stakes being mush higher as they are.

On ZBC, that was my argument too that MDC should have free access, at least on radio and TV since its a public broadcaster. But then, the emergence of a western-funded pirate TV, alongside the refusal to shut down pirate radios sponsored by US, UK and Netherlands, convinced me that ZBC does not have to accommodate MDC.

Still, I expect MDC to do very well in the cities again. Their supporters have remained very loyal and I do not think there is much ZANU can say to these voters to change their minds. However, countrywide, I see massive ZANU revival, aided in part by MDC infighting! While ZANU has 4 rebels contesting against their main candidates, MDC-T has 29! On top of the 29, they have to contend with 201 from MDC-N who are fighting for the same political space!

Unqualified Critic

Totally misleading article title (though I do realize I'm reading The Economist, I thought maybe it had to do with the economics of stripping in Zimbabwe). Darn it!


Ever wonder why TE seems to only care about elections in Africa when it comes to Kenya, South Africa and Zimbabwe. The three countries with significant white British populations and interest. Togo, Madagascar, Swaziland and Rwanda all have up coming elections. No peep out of TE.



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