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As the March
30th deadline approaches for Zimbabwe's parliamentary election
campaigns, the country's political parties are still drawing
election battle lines.
President
Robert Mugabe, who heads the Zimbabwe African National Union
Patriotic Front(ZANUPF), is charging that the opposition
Movement for a Democratic Change(MDC) is a front for the British
governments maneuvers to re-colonize Zimbabwe.
MDC leader
Morgan Tsvangirai has consistently dismissed Mr. Mugabe's
allegations, saying he is using the British prime minister as a decoy
for the economic and political crises facing the country. He
says President Mugabe and his party created Zimbabwe's problems
and are now unable to solve them.
"No one
can tell me that I am less a patriot than Robert Mugabe,"
he said. "Tony Blair has nothing to do with Zimbabwe. If
Mugabe wants to contest Tony Blair he should go to
Britain."
Mr.
Tsvangirai says it is Mr. Mugabe who is beholden
to the British, noting that the government has not changed the
independence constitution negotiated with the British, 25 years
ago.
Mr.
Mugabe has doled out
hundreds of computers for schools at every campaign stop. He has
been quick to tell the recipients of the computers that the
donations are a personal, rather than a political initiative.
Critics
of Mr. Mugabe say the school children need books, rather than
computers. They say some of the schools receiving the computers
do not have the electricity needed to run them.
It was
during this campaign that Mr. Mugabe admitted that Zimbabwe will
harvest less than enough to feed its 12.5 million citizens.
However, he says the government will import enough food to feed
everyone.
Exhorting the electorate to vote for change, Mr.
Tsvangirai says his party is the antidote to the ills facing
Zimbabwe.
"You
have a right to choose your own leadership, you have a right to
choose your own government. Go and vote for food. Go and vote
for job. Go and vote for hope. Go and vote for MDC. Go and vote
for your future."
Unlike
the 2000 general and 2002 presidential elections, this campaign
has been largely peaceful. Mr. Tsvangirai has taken his campaign
to what had been "no-go" areas for his party and -
according to media reports - has attracted sizable audiences
there.
The
results of both the 2000 and 2002 polls revealed a
rural-versus-urban divide, with the ruling ZANU-PF party doing
well in most rural areas and the MDC getting the majority of
urban seats. At stake Thursday are 120 seats in parliament.
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