Tobacco is usually planted in mid June on Zimbabwe's farms and
exported with a 35% entry for the country. This year the season
coincides with the elections. How many of the country's five-million
voters will decide that it is worthwhile? It is not an isolated
question, if you consider that only one fourth of the country's
voters made an effort to go to the polls in mid February of last
year, when President Robert Mugabe was defeated in a referendum for
the first time in 20 years of power. Those who went were mainly from
the urban areas, the worst-affected by the 50% unemployment rate, a
disproportionate AIDS epidemic and inflation that varies between 50%
and 60%. It was not hard for the new Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC), real referendum rival of the ruling Zanu Party, to convince
particularly members of unions to say no to the old President. But
for the majority of the country, in the end it was just a
constitutional referendum in which Mugabe was asking for more power,
without confronting any of the real and dramatic matters of survival
for his nation. For many, particularly those living outside of urban
areas, it was really a difficult concept to grasp after endless
years of impoverishment corruption, the systematic reduction of
international aid...rendered everyday life always more grim. Just the
day before the referendum fuel supplies were cut from abroad,
causing interminable car line-ups and clashes. In this atmosphere,
697,754 voters, for the most part from the cities, said no to
Mugabe's proposals; and 578,210 said yes. Now, as the polling places
are about to open for the parliamentary elections, monitored by over
16-thousand observers, February's result stands out. As does also
the issue of the occupations of commercial farms and the
descriptions, often distorted and amplified by the mass media. (BO)