- guardian.co.uk, Sunday March 10 2002 03.13 GMT
After months of harassment, violence and murder by the regime they backed against white rule more than two decades ago, the people formed huge queues around the polling stations set up, supposedly, to let them decide whether Robert Gabriel Mugabe - former teacher, guerrilla fighter and Zimbabwe's President - should be allowed to continue in power.
It had been a long and painful journey to the polls. And even the simple act of placing a vote in a ballot box proved dangerous in Mugabe's Zimbabwe. The people have been terrorised for weeks by youths paid from the coffers of the ruling elite, and the army and riot police swelled their ranks yesterday amid fears that the prospect of defeat would provoke an outpouring of bloodshed.
In Harare, the capital, the pace of voting was so slow that many believed bureaucratic obstacles were being put in their way to prevent them ousting Mugabe. Riot police fired tear gas and bludgeoned voters with clubs after disturbances caused by the slow pace of voting.
Mugabe had left nothing to chance. In the hours before voting began, a wave of violence swept the country. Polling agents from the MDC Opposition were beaten by thugs loyal to Mugabe's regime. The militia of the ruling party had established bases near polling stations throughout the rural areas and some cities to intimidate people into voting for Mugabe. In the Wedza area, 80 kilometres east of the capital, the militia dismantled a polling station at Lustleigh School and moved it on to their base. They then abducted 150 farmworkers and beat them in a 're-education session' through the night.
One farmworker ran from the militia camp and slept in the bush. 'I went back to that camp this morning in order to vote,' he said. 'I voted for the MDC.'
MDC polling agents were attacked, abducted, fired upon and beaten in the provinces of Manicaland, Matabeleland North, Midlands and Mashonaland West, East and Central. Commonwealth observers reported 'disturbing' violence against the Opposition.
J J Kundembe was attacked by a group of 20 militants from the ruling Zanu-PF party. 'I was staring death in the face,' said Kundembe, nursing head wounds. 'I had nowhere to run. With intimidation people will never vote for this government again. It was all pre-arranged. I am going back in the morning. I want to change the system.'
In another incident, a group of 12 white farmers travelling to vote were seized by Mugabe's militia, beaten and forced to sing songs in praise of the President. When the police arrived, they arrested the farmers for causing a disturbance. They were still being held in cells last night.
In case the violence was not enough to scare people from voting, hundreds of polling stations were closed, creating a huge backlog of queues and prompting the Opposition to call for an extension to voting, which officially closes tonight.
A cumbersome voting process, established only last week, was allowing only a handful of people to cast their ballots each hour. Presiding officers at Harare polling stations revealed that only 50-80 people are voting each hour while thousands wait outside in increasingly restive queues.
Driving through Highfield township, I saw two schools that had been polling stations in the June 2000 parliamentary elections but were now closed. Finally I saw a throng of people and found the Kwayedza school polling station. More than 4,000 people were queuing in the baking midday sun. 'I have been waiting here since 4 am and I want to vote, but this line is not moving,' said Barnabas Mutandwa. 'I am not leaving here until I vote.' Soon I was surrounded by 30 young township toughs, mothers with babies on their backs and a toothless old woman. They all wanted to tell me how long they had waited in the queue, why they wanted to vote - and why they wanted to vote against Robert Mugabe.
'We are hungry. We cannot get food,' said the mother. 'We cannot get jobs,' said a youth. 'My son has been beaten,' said the old woman. 'They must keep these polls open 24 hours a day until we all have voted,' shouted a pretty young woman, forcing her way closer to me. 'We want our right to vote!' Others cheered her and shouted in approval.
Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the MDC (Movement for Democratic Change), who has been widely tipped to emerge as the country's new leader if the vote was free and fair, urged the people of Zimbabwe not to give up without voting. 'I know you are tired,' he said shortly before voting. 'I know you are scared and I know you are hungry. But have courage people of Zimbabwe, the darkest hour is always before the dawn.'
Anger was building last night in the slow-moving queues, and many believe the frustration in Harare could provoke an outbreak of spontaneous anti-government violence and a swiftly brutal government response. 'This is just what the government wants,' said an international observer. 'They want frustrated voters to become angry and riot. Then they can move in with the riot police and disperse them, and the voting is over.'
At another Harare polling station yesterday the people watched sullenly and silently as Mugabe was whisked inside by armed guards to place his vote. 'I will accept the result,' said Mugabe, 78. 'I will most certainly accept the result, because I will have won.' The President then drove off in his armoured black Mercedes in a convoy of more than 20 vehicles, including two trucks of army men bristling with guns.
Those in the queue remained behind, still waiting to vote. 'Tell the observers to come here and see us,' said a young man, pulling me aside. 'Tell them to see how they are trying to discourage us from voting.'
Tawanda Mavuta, a middle-aged women, had been subsisting on two cobs of maize a day. 'The Zanu-PF militia have come to my house four times in the past two weeks. They write down my name and my ID numbers and they ask me lots of questions. They say I must vote for Mugabe. They say if I vote for Tsvangirai they will know it and come back and beat me, maybe kill me. I don't care. I am fed up with this. I am going to vote for change.'
Since the European Union pulled its observer mission out of Zimbabwe two weeks ago, there are very few international observers here. The Commonwealth, with 51 observers, is the most serious mission. One Commonwealth observer was ashen-faced yesterday after travelling through the Midlands province where state-sponsored violence had been widespread. 'I saw Opposition supporters whose bodies were flayed and men who were castrated,' he said. 'It was unimaginably horrific. I had trouble sleeping last night.'
The millions of Zimbabweans queuing to vote last night appeared willing to queue for as long as it takes to ensure they have their say in the future of a country that was once one of the most prosperous in Africa. They do not want much: just to vote and to have their votes counted fairly.
Last night there was still no sign that Mugabe agreed with the wishes of his people.
