Mugabe bolsters polls campaign

07 October 2012 - 02:06 By JAMA MAJOLA
subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now

Following President Robert Mugabe's fresh victory in the courts that allows him to postpone by-elections to the end of March next year, Zanu-PF has started its polls preparations in earnest.

The octogenarian and Zanu-PF are pushing for national elections to be held by March 31 next year. But there is considerable resistance from the two MDC parties and regional leaders, who want to see free and fair polls held in Zimbabwe to install a legitimate government.

Zanu-PF is said to want to capitalise on this week's court triumph to call for a general vote.

Mugabe and his party officials are also said to be pulling out all the stops behind the scenes to prepare for elections, hoping to ambush their rivals before the coalition government's term ends in June next year.

Insiders say Mugabe's election manoeuvres include pushing for the fast-tracking of the constitution-making process and referendum on the new draft constitution.

Stepping up military deployments in rural areas and coming up with a series of development programmes and projects to entice voters are also listed on his political plan of action.

A special Zanu-PF mobilisation committee comprising senior party officials met in Harare on Wednesday to map out strategies and tactics for the upcoming elections.

There the committee is said to have resolved to engage in housing cooperatives, pressure banks to fund projects, set up micro-financing schemes and start community-based development programmes, including campaigns to clean towns, to win votes.

It also agreed to infiltrate churches and burial societies to mobilise voters on a massive scale, as well as roping in youth activists and war veterans.

It resolved to borrow tactics from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), South Africa's ruling ANC, Tanzania's CCM and Angola's MPLA. Zanu-PF officials are said to have agreed to approach those parties for help and expertise in mobilisation strategies and techniques.

Only two weeks ago, Zanu-PF apparatchiks returned from China where they underwent training and drilling on mass mobilisation.

That followed a recent visit to Zimbabwe by CCP officials who exchanged ideas with Zanu-PF on how to mobilise for elections.

The party is also said to be using the indigenisation programme to campaign for votes. Mugabe has launched community-share ownership schemes in which rural communities are given shares in foreign-owned mining firms that are also forced to build infrastructure in their areas of operation.

Zanu-PF has also reportedly built a war chest for the elections, using diamond revenues diverted to its coffers instead of going into the National Treasury.

Insiders say the military remains Mugabe and his party's trump card. Over the past few months the army has been gradually deployed into rural areas, Zanu-PF's stronghold, to lay the ground for the president and his party's polls campaign.

The military is currently mainly active in Manicaland Province.

Traditional leaders in Bikita, Masvingo Province, have reportedly been ordered to attend a meeting at the army headquarters there in the latest move by security forces to step up their mobilisation efforts on behalf of Mugabe and Zanu-PF.

Masvingo, the biggest province in Zimbabwe in terms of population numbers, was for months under siege from security forces and war veterans under the leadership of Jabulani Sibanda.

MDC provincial information director for Masvingo Honest Makanyire this week revealed to civic society leaders that chiefs and headmen there received a circular from local district administrator Edgar Seenza advising them to attend a meeting on October 12 at 4 Brigade Army Headquarters in the province.

Part of the letter from the district administrator's office, dated September 30, reads: "To all chiefs and headmen - Invitation to attend traditional leaders' day at HQ 4 Brigade.

"You are expected to attend the meeting." it adds.

Traditional leaders in the area told civic leaders the move was part of the military's broad agenda to mobilise support for Mugabe and Zanu-PF ahead of the referendum on the constitution and elections.

subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now