Mugabe offers farms for votes

Zimbabwe's ruling party is offering voters a generous incentive to re-elect President Robert Mugabe for a sixth term: "If you want a farm, vote Zanu-PF." The message is being relayed in a campaign jingle for the ruling party that is being played repeatedly on the country's four radio stations, all state-controlled, ahead of parliamentary and presidential polls on Mar. 29. As well as offering a farm to government loyalists, the jingle goes on: "If you want a tractor, vote Zanu-PF. If you want a company, vote Zanu-PF." The minute-long jingle begins more lyrically: "Growing up I thought that I would look for a job. But now I am the one who is giving people jobs. Visionary leadership, vote Zanu-PF, consistent leadership, vote Zanu-PF, black empowerment, vote Zanu-PF." But the blanket airplay it is receiving illustrates complaints by opposition candidates, human rights organizations, and the US State Department that the polls will not be free and fair. For the first time, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is being allowed to advertize on radio, and its chorus runs: "Change the way you think, be free to speak, be free from fear." But Denford Magora, the spokesman for Simba Makoni, the former finance minister who is standing against Mugabe, said that his advertisements were not being carried by newspapers. "We book, we pay and they say they won't accommodate them," he said. Tendai Biti, the MDC secretary-general, added: "The conditions are definitely not conducive for free and fair elections. Our supporters are still being harassed and the police are being used as weapons for intimidation." Amnesty International cited examples of intimidation, including one case where three MDC activists were forced to rip down and eat election posters they had put up. Zimbabwe's police dismissed the accusations as part of a Western plot to discredit the polls.