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Red cards for Mugabe could keep his foes alive
Globe and Mail
June 27, 2008

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080627.wnewzimbabwe0627/BNStory/International/

Question Dingo was too angry to vote for Robert Mugabe, but too scared not to.

So with wild rumours spreading that a fresh campaign of violence is to begin Saturday against all those who didn't vote for Mr. Mugabe on Friday in Zimbabwe's one-man presidential election — the campaign is alleged to be dubbed Operation Red Finger, since anyone who voted would have their pinky finger marked with indelible red ink, making it easy for Mr. Mugabe's often violent supporters to identify those who had boycotted — Mr. Dingo came up with a clever, if inadvertently symbolic, way out of his conundrum.

Before the first round of the election three months ago, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change gave its supporters red cards, the kind a soccer referee uses to eject a player for poor behaviour, to signal that it was time for Mr. Mugabe to go. On Friday, Mr. Dingo tore up that red card and mixed it in a dish with some water. Presto, his pinky finger was covered in red ink.

"If they come," the thin 33-year-old said, smiling nervously, "I can just raise my finger."

Mr. Dingo was packed into a dark, seven-room safe house with about 50 other terrified MDC supporters here in this densely populated township south of Harare. Nearly all were refugees who had fled their own homes during a campaign of violence that has left upward of 80 people dead and some 200,000 others displaced, nearly all of them backers of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

Mr. Tsvangirai — who actually came out ahead in the first round of voting, though he fell short of the margin needed to avert Friday's runoff — withdrew from the race this week, saying the campaign of murder and arson against his supporters made a free election impossible. That left Mr. Mugabe to run unopposed yesterday, and he is expected to soon claim victory and another six-year-term in office.

The threat of more violence was the primary tool used to prod reticent voters to the ballot box Friday to put an X beside Mr. Mugabe's name. Once there, their names and addresses were matched up with numbers printed on the ballots they were issued so it could later be ascertained who had voted for Mr. Mugabe and who had dared not to.

Though state-run television claimed turnout was high and showed pictures of long lineups at several polling stations, turnout appeared extremely lacklustre at the more than a dozen polling stations The Globe and Mail visited in and around Harare Friday. Helmeted riot police carrying batons were deployed in the city's main park and at key intersections in the capital.

Mr. Dingo has already experienced what it can mean to oppose Mr. Mugabe. Ten days ago, he was in the same safe house when thugs from ZANU-PF arrived, looking to punish those who had voted for Mr. Tsvangirai on the first ballot.

That night, three MDC youths were beaten to death with iron bars. A fourth youth later died in hospital from his injuries. Mr. Dingo escaped unhurt by vaulting over a wall.

Inside the same building last night, fears were high that ZANU-PF would attack again after the polls closed. Dozens of those preparing for a nervous sleep on the floor or in the garden outside had borrowed Mr. Dingo's trick and dabbed their pinky fingers red with ink from the MDC cards.

"We pretend with this ink so they can [think] that we voted. But we will not. Who can we vote for?" said Georgina Nyamustamba, a round-faced 57-year-old grandmother who said she had been living in the safe house for two weeks after being forced to flee her own home. Despite the red ink, she said she is terrified that nothing will protect her if ZANU-PF militiamen attacked the safe house again. "How can we stay in Zimbabwe like this? We are afraid for our lives."

Many of those who did vote Friday said that they did so out of fear. Several said they had been warned that they would lose their homes or businesses if they didn't turn out to vote for Mr. Mugabe.

In some places, the intimidation was as unapologetic as it was blatant. Cecil Zhangazha, a 47-year-old ZANU-PF supporter, stood outside a polling station in Dema, a rural area south of Harare, sporting a shabby button-down shirt with a worn green collar. He said it was his job to collect voters' names and cross-reference them with a list the party had given him.

"I have to make sure I write down the names of all people who voted. We have also asked all village heads to do the same," he explained between sips of a Coca-Cola. "We have been educating people. We believe they are all going to vote for ZANU-PF. That, we have made sure of."

It remains to be seen whether enough people were coerced into voting to give Mr. Mugabe the convincing result he is seeking ahead of the African Union summit that opens next week in Egypt, where Zimbabwe is expected to face more censure. Both the United Nations Security Council and the Southern African Development Community have already condemned the election as undemocratic, and several Western countries have suggested they will seek more sanctions against Mr. Mugabe and his regime if, as expected, he goes ahead and swears himself in for another term.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said yesterday that Canada would add to international pressure on Mr. Mugabe and his regime to hold a free and democratic election.

He told a meeting of B'nai Brith International that "we are working with the international community to bring in . . . measures to pressure the Mugabe regime, which has illegitimately stolen the election."

Mr. Tsvangirai called on the international community to reject Friday's vote, saying the results will "reflect only the fear of the people." The MDC called on its supporters to stay home yesterday, or to spoil their ballots if they were forced to vote.

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