ZIMBABWE:In stark contrast to previous elections marred by violence, Robert Mugabe's intimidation tactics have been noticeable this time only by their absence, writes Bill Corcoranin Harare
OPPOSITION CANDIDATES and political activists who have been canvassing and taking part in rallies in the run-up to Zimbabwe's general election next Saturday have been experiencing something missing for nearly a decade.
Rather than suffering violence and intimidation at the hands of President Robert Mugabe's henchmen, presidential hopefuls Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and independent Simba Makoni and their supporters have for the most part been campaigning and holding rallies unhindered over the past month.
Even in the old dictator's traditional rural strongholds, once the preserve of President Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party and its supporters, opposition candidates have been drawing large crowds eager to hear how the MDC or Makoni aim to turn around the country's crippled economy.
In the capital Harare a similar situation has been unfolding. In contrast to the MDC rallies that were brutally crushed by the police last year, on Saturday 70,000 MDC supporters were allowed to support the party ahead of the March 29th polling day in the shadow of Zanu-PF party's towering inner city office block.
Everywhere one turns in the city, posters of the three presidential candidates appear side by side unmolested, and even the buildings near President Mugabe's inner city compounds are adorned with images of his main rivals.
Is the 84-year-old dictator finally embracing the idea of democracy and allowing Zimbabweans to express themselves freely? Human rights lawyer and 2008 election observer Arnold Tsunga told The Irish Times the election environment was surprisingly different to those of 2002 and 2005, which were marred by violence and allegations of vote rigging against the victorious President Mugabe by the MDC and many election observers.
"In all fairness, the final lap of this election campaign has been a bit longer than the ones that have gone before . . . and while there have been reports of some violence it is nothing compared to previous elections.
"However, while people are experiencing real freedom to express themselves . . . it does not necessarily mean the freeness and fairness of elections should be judged on one month before the election," he said.
According to the Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum, a group of 17 local NGOs that diligently records human rights abuses around the country, last year they recorded the highest number of violations since its inception.
"After a year characterised by violence, intolerance and the abuse of power by state security agents . . . This trend was carried forward into the year 2008 with January recording a total of 336 politically motivated human rights violations," stated the NGO recently.
Nevertheless, the ongoing economic meltdown - inflation is running at over 100,000 per cent and in the rural areas many people are starving - has pushed many to a level of dissatisfaction that has taken them beyond fear.
Aside from this, many people believe Mugabe's ability to crush dissent has been weakened by the recent split in the ruling party that has led to Makoni, his one-time finance minister and until recently a senior Zanu-PF official, running against him.
Long-time Mugabe supporter Noel Sibanda (59), an unemployed father from Harare who is originally from Mashonland, a rural province in north eastern Zimbabwe, has for the first time decided to vote against the man who secured the country's independence from the white minority Rhodesian government in the late 1970s.
"I have always voted Zanu-PF and Mugabe because the party liberated us from the British and the racist whites in Rhodesia. Even when life started to become hard I stayed true to Mugabe as he was our liberator, but now it is enough.
"We have nothing: the water does not run and the electricity is often off. My children's children do not have enough to eat and there is no chance for work. It is time for a change and I will vote for Makoni," he said.
Sibanda explained that even though everyone he knew said they would vote for one of the two opposition candidates, he was unsure how the election would go.
"I do not know what will happen, but I fear for my country. There will be bloodletting if Mugabe wins; there will be bloodletting if Tsvangirai wins. That is why I think I will vote for Makoni, it might bring a peaceful time - that is what I am hoping," he explained.
Another Harare resident Chris (he asked that his surname not be used) explained that life had become so hard in Zimbabwe that people who normally avoid politics now felt they had to make their voices heard.
"I have never voted before, but it is time for every Zimbabwean to get involved in politics; that is why I will vote MDC on Saturday. I feel I have no choice if I want my life to improve," he said.
Whether Zimbabweans will get the change in government they appear to so desperately want only time will tell. However, Mr Tsunga cautioned against seeing too much into the new found political freedoms that Zimbabweans have been experiencing.
"It is a pleasant surprise to find the pre-election situation we are in, but given the overall election environment has been shaped by years of outright state sanctioned brutality and the subjection of institutions of administration that are critical to free and fair elections, it is too early to say the situation has changed in terms of political freedoms," he concluded.