President Robert Mugabe faces tough election battle

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HARARE, Zimbabwe - The word is out: The Spar supermarket has bread at only $7 million a loaf. People rush to the shelf duly marked $7 million, but by the time they reach the till with their hyper-inflated Zimbabwean dollars, the price is up to $25 million.

The Associated Press

Main opposition MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) supporters attend an election rally near Harare yesterday. The country goes to the polls tomorrow in an election in which Robert Mugabe is fighting to prolong his 28-year-old presidency.

That equals just 62 American cents, more than a teacher makes in a week. "How can we afford to eat that?" a woman exclaims. Customers leave their loaves at the counter and walk out with their brick-sized bundles of bank notes, angry and disconsolate.

Daily scenes of struggle with the world's highest inflation are the dark backdrop to an election tomorrow in which Robert Mugabe is fighting to prolong his 28-year-old presidency, outpolled by his main opponent and accused of laying elaborate plans to rig the vote.

On Mugabe's watch, the country has collapsed from food exporter to being dependent on international food handouts and money sent home by many of the five million people -- more than a third of the population -- who have fled Zimbabwe.

"This election is about survival. ... about empty stomachs and health and education that we are not getting for our families," said Elizabeth Chaibvu, a member of the Feminist Political Education Project.

People long cowed into silence by Mugabe's strong-arm methods are speaking openly against their leader, seeing the election as a last hope for the country where inflation is over 100,000 per cent a year.

But Mugabe, 84, is accused of stacking the decks against his opponents, redistricting voting constituencies, buying votes with gifts such as tractors, and delivering state-subsidized food only to his party supporters.

"Zimbabweans aren't free to vote for the candidates of their choice," New York-based Human Rights Watch said.

Amnesty International alleged "intimidation, harassment and violence against perceived supporters of opposition candidates, with many in rural regions fearful that there will be retribution after the elections."

The election is about more than just one country in southern Africa. Many other African leaders, seeking in varying degrees to become democratic and put the days of coups and strongmen behind them, are torn about how to deal with Mugabe.

They cannot ignore Mugabe's past as an icon of resistance to colonial rule, and they applaud when he claims that "The West still negates our sovereignties, by way of control of our resources, in the process making us mere chattels in our own lands."

While the West has imposed limited sanctions, African governments have refrained from acting against Mugabe. Instead, led by neighbouring South Africa, they have sought to help make the election a success and give Mugabe a measure of respectability.

The fact that this fourth contested presidential election is going ahead, with multiple candidates, is a tribute to Zimbabweans' democratic sinew, epitomized by Mugabe's main opponent, Morgan Tsvangirai. The 55-year-old trade unionist has dealt Mugabe past electoral humiliations, and his battered face was flashed around the world after he was severely beaten by police last year.

Also running is Simba Makoni, 58, a former finance minister and member of Mugabe's politburo until he was expelled for daring to challenge the leader. Makoni's defection is a sign of growing dissent within Mugabe's ruling Zimbabwe African National Union party. But while he could take support from Mugabe, Makoni also could divide the opposition vote.