Voting experiences
Voting is over and yesterday may feel like old news. But we suddenly received a spurt of emails from people trying to tell us what they went through. Here are a few voices from Zimbabwe, to read while we wait for results to start to come in.
From Harare, at lunchtime today (30th):
I spoke to a young student nurse from the wards at Pari Hospital this morning, about 10am. When I asked if she had voted OK, she replied that NO none of those on duty at the Hospital were given time off to vote and that unlike previous elections, there were no polling stations in Parirenyatwa grounds. She was upset and said it was her right to vote.
Driving through Mbare yesterday at about 11.30am there were quiet, reasonably long queues, in most areas except Mbare Poly Clinic where there were no voters at all. There were about 4 or 5 policemen and 4 or 5 ZEC observers.
From Bulawayo
Expecting long queues in the morning, we waited till after lunch to go and cast our votes in Ward 4, Bulawayo. It was our intention to vote at Leeside Bottle Store, but as we didn’t see a tent there I proceeded to Hotel Rio, about 4 km down the road. Indeed: just one person ahead of us!
Out of our little group of three persons, only one was able to vote unfortunately. Our maid, whose name appeared on the roll, was told that she was not allowed to vote as her father was from Malawi, and she had never renounced ‘her Malawian citizenship’. She had always been able to vote since she registered as a voter in 1995. My name was not on the roll. I had not been able to check the voters’ roll in February, as I was out of town, but I had voted in 2005, also in Ward 4, and my name has been on the roll since 1995. My husband’s name had also been struck off, I saw. Only my maid’s husband managed to cast his vote.
A very helpful policeman outside the tent tried to radio my name and ID number through to a command post but the response was extremely slow. So I went to Hillside Teacher Training College myself to have my details checked but the computer came up with a blank for Wards 3 and 4. The ZEC lady outside the building even advised me to check a polling station in Ward 5, so off I went to the Hillside shops. I found a “polling station” poster at the entrance gate of the Women’s Institute, pointing down the road, so I walked in the direction of the arrow but unfortunately didn’t find the polling station. Then I gave up and went home again, totally disillusioned.
I should also mention that the signposting near the tent at the Rio was totally inadequate too. We almost missed the tent altogether as it was well hidden under the trees on the other side of the road from the Hotel. Only after I had parked the car I noticed a ‘polling station’ poster along the main road, but it had folded over, presumably by the wind. (Of course nobody had bothered to rectify that). The poster on the tent itself had also folded over, but that was definitely not caused by the wind: the two top corners were tied together with a piece of string! When I pointed that out to a ZEC person, she sorted it out in a few minutes, but by then it was 3 PM already.
I guess the poster had been like that the whole time…
A friend who arrived at the Rio after me, said that there was a polling station at Leeside too, which we had missed on our way to the Rio. I decided to have a good look on my way back, and indeed there was a tent, but not in the usual place - in full view in the parking area outside Leeside Bottle Store: it was well over a hundred meters back, hidden behind a 6′ high wall, and again the ‘polling station’ posters were barely visible. One was stuck behind a tree (!) and another one blended beautifully with the granite wall on which it had been stuck. Several of my acquaintances had told me earlier that there was no polling station at Leeside this time; people who even passed the place on foot had missed it completely and had decided to walk all the way to the Rio instead to vote.
Apparently somebody had decided to organise a treasure hunt: Find the Polling Stations!
From Harare and Mash East:
SMS prayer received Saturday “Pray this prayer and pass on to as many people as possible: We uproot, tear down, destroy and overthrow every plot and plan to rig elections In the name of Jesus”.
From a Police friend: “I am disturbed some ballots are missing and also some registered voters are not on the roll”.
From another Police friend: ” Please wake up to vote. Lets all go out and recover our Zim. Someone is taking our Zim for a ransom. Your vote is your ballistic missile to dislodge the draconian rule of the tsar or nazi.”
From Rural area, Mash East “I hope this time we are gong to have a change in Zimbabwe; we are suffering here Madam”.
