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Shalom Zone Builds Community In Zimbabwe
By Dean Synder & Jane Malone
HARARE, Zimbabwe (UMNS) – Church leaders from other African nations joined members of the Zimbabwe Council of Churches to form a 100-member politically independent, nonpartisan team of ecumenical observers for Zimbabwe’s presidential election.
After visiting a dozen polling places from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on March 9 and 10, each of some 20 observers assigned to Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital, met nightly in a downtown hotel to report findings and to strategize about how to strengthen democracy in Zimbabwe.
The weary church leaders, who had been granted observer status only days before the vote, reported that the election was peaceful but stressful. One South African observer called the situation "depressing."
Urban Zimbabweans are being disenfranchised by the election process, according to observers. The number of polling places in Harare, for example, was reduced by 40 percent since the last national election in 2000, while rural voting sites have been increased. Lines in the city were so long on March 9 that the Rev. Richard Chiza, pastor of the Mabelreign United Methodist Church in Harare, said he waited 12 hours to vote.
Facing lengthy lines that day and the next, Harare’s polls stayed open later than the scheduled closing time of 7 p.m., and some were open all night.
Following the scheduled end of the election on March 10, with many voters in Harare still standing in line, the Movement for Democratic Change filed an appeal asking Zimbabwe’s courts to extend the voting another day. Zimbabwe’s High Court agreed with the opposition party’s request and extended the election for a third day in a late-night ruling. All polls were ordered to open again on March 11.
Church observers said that the reduced number of polling places almost guaranteed that urban voters would be denied their franchise. Before the election was extended, one observer noted that the scarcity of polling places available to Harare’s 850,000 voters would require that a voter vote every 18 seconds during the two-day period to accommodate everyone registered. Yet, at one poorly performing polling place, locating the name of the voter in the registry book and completing the voting process required almost 15 minutes, the observer reported. At that rate, those registered would not be able to vote even if the polls stayed open all week, he said.
Many urban voters were discouraged from voting by the need to stay in long lines in the hot sun without food or water, only to be required sometimes to go home without having voted and return the next day.
Some observers suggested the difficulty of voting in urban areas may have been intentional: the current ruling party ZANU-PF (Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front) and President Robert Mugabe reportedly carry the rural areas, while urban voters tend to favor the Movement for Democratic Change party and its candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai.
Tsvangirai’s campaign is the first serious challenge that Mugabe has faced since his election in 1980. Mugabe, a schoolteacher turned guerilla fighter and war hero in the struggle for independence more than two decades ago, was elected Zimbabwe’s first president. He succeeded United Methodist Bishop Abel T. Muzorewa, who served as Zimbabwe’s first appointed prime minister.
The Rev. Gladman Kapfumvuti of the United Methodist Church’s Zimbabwe Annual Conference said that people were determined to vote in the election. As an ecumenical observer, Kapfumvuti visited 15 polling places in rural communities outside Harare on March 9 and another 12 polling stations near Harare on March 10. Kapfumvuti, who serves as conference council director and assistant to Bishop Christopher Jokomo, played a key role in securing observer status for the national and international religious community.
The Zimbabwe Council of Churches had hoped to have 4,000 official observers, one for each polling place. Until a few days before the election, the council thought it might be denied any official role. But limited status was granted, and the World Council of Churches provided church observers from outside Zimbabwe.
The ecumenical observers are permitted to visit polling places and interview voters and officials. They have been granted no power to lodge complaints or correct wrongs during the course of the election.
However, the observers will prepare a report with observations and recommendations that they hope will strengthen democracy in future elections.
Church observers were also able to have unofficial conversations with election officials in order to encourage easier access to the polls for Zimbabwe’s citizens.
One observer from another African nation said he was confused by the contrast between what he saw with his eyes and what he saw in the reports of election officials. "I visited polling places where I saw 4,000 people in the queue," he said, "but officials reported that only 1,500 people had voted."
Other observers said they believed the need to wait in line for hours resulted in a dramatic decrease of women voters in urban areas. After standing in line for several hours, the women needed to go home to feed their children and give them relief from the sun. Many never returned to vote, especially those who have jobs that require standing up all day during the week. Late in the polling, after the election had lost credibility with female voters, some polling places managed the high volume of voters by separating the waiting lines by gender; this resulted in interminable lines for male voters and empty places for women who did not return.
The Mugabe government has attempted to build support by suggesting that Europeans and Americans are Zimbabwe’s enemies and that they are supporting the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. Mugabe has said that non-Zimbabweans should "mind their own business."
Extreme difficulty with credentialing the observer delegation from the European Union resulted in the group leaving Zimbabwe before the election began. Some applicants for journalist credentials from the United Kingdom, elsewhere in Europe, and the United
States were denied entry into Zimbabwe. Except for official observers, most tourists and business people are avoiding Zimbabwe during March for fear that the election may be accompanied by violence.
However, most Zimbabweans, who have a reputation as a peaceful and hospitable people, remain friendly to visitors.
A rare couple from the United States, taking a walk through Harare on Sunday afternoon, the second day of the election, stopped by a stand to buy some fruit. Because tourism has stopped and the city is empty, the vendors were surprised to learn the couple was from the United States. One of them gave the visitors some bananas as a gift.
He held up two fingers in a peace sign and quoted reggae singer Bob Marley. "One love," he said.
Snyder is the director of communications for the Baltimore-Washington Conference. Malone, a United Methodist laywoman and Snyder's spouse, is an advocate for the removal of lead paint in affordable housing. They are in Zimbabwe on a mission trip.
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