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Tsvangirai tells mass rally to "defend" their vote against rigging"
Monsters and Critics
March 23, 2008

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Harare/Johannesburg - Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai upstaged President Robert Mugabe Sunday by attracting around 30,000 exultant supporters to a major rally in Harare during his campaign for national elections next Saturday.

The well-behaved crowd, waving shiny plastic red cards to signify 84-year-old Mugabe's 'send off' after 28 years of violent, autocratic rule, responded deafeningly to Tsvangirai's chant, 'chinja!', Shona language for 'change.'

The 56-year-old former, national labour leader also warned his supporters that Mugabe's regime would use 'every trick in the book' to rig the presidential, parliamentary and local council elections on March 29. He urged them to stay at polling stations after they had cast their ballots 'and defend your vote' against attempts at rigging.

Tsvangirai, head of the larger faction of the divided opposition Movement for Democratic Change, is running against Mugabe in the presidential vote, as well as against Simba Makoni, Mugabe's former finance minister who stunned the ruling ZANU (PF) in early February by announcing his challenge for the presidency.

Analysts say Tsvangirai has capitalised on an unexpected surge in support not just in urban areas, his traditional support base, but also in poor and underdeveloped rural areas that ZANU (PF) has dominated absolutely since independence from white minority rule in 1980.

Mugabe is severely undermined by the country's collapse, with inflation in January at 100,000 per cent and critical shortages of basic commodities - including cash - while ZANU(PF) is also seen as fracturing over disillusionment over Mugabe.

Zimbabweans were 'going to witness the last gasp of the dictatorship,' Tsvangirai said. 'We are going to vote in our millions.' But, he warned, 'we expect the enemies of justice to engage every trick in the book ... to subvert the will of the people.

'They will be late to unlock the gate (of the polling stations), they will be without power, and they will have trouble with the toilet and the ballots. They will be confused by the voters roll. They will try to put on an act of trying to run an election.

'On election day, go there as early as you can to cast your vote,' he said,' he said. 'When you vote, we will stay at place, to celebrate, to defend our vote. Stay behind. The only support we have is the defence of our vote. Whatever you do, we are holding your (Mugabe's) tail down and this time you are not going anywhere.'

Analysts say that the tactic of staying at the polling station is a bid to prevent Mugabe's government from disrupting voting particularly in rural areas where electoral authorities have provided far too few polling stations for the large number of voters.

In the last presidential elections in 2002, when insufficient polling stations were first set up, long queues formed as officials were overwhelmed by the numbers. On the last day of voting, police teargassed and baton charged waiting voters. The move is estimated to have lost the MDC about 300,000 in an election in which Mugabe was declared the winner by 400,000 votes.

Election watchdog agencies have also reported severe irregularities with the voters' roll, with many thousands of dead people still registered and some people registered several times.

Mugabe is also still carrying out what the agencies say is deliberate vote buying by the government, and delivering millions of US dollars - illegally seized from private funds - worth agricultural equipment, while state media campaign relentlessly for Mugabe and ZPF thereby violating laws prescribing equal coverage.

Independent observers say Mugabe's victories in the last three elections are the result of violent intimidation, laws severely skewed in Mugabe's favor and outright cheating.

'The greatest weapon this regime has is fear and intimidation,' Tsvangirai said. 'We are beyond fear now.'

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