Voters Left With Little Choice As the Terror Goes on

Smart Zimbabweans are taking no chances: they are keeping up with the election slogans of Robert Mugabe and Zanu-PF that are handy to know at difficult moments.

The latest - "Mugabe in office by force on 27 June" - is useful for those hauled off buses by the ruling party's militia and forced to profess their loyalty to a president who recently said only God can remove him from office.

Anyone unable to recite the slogans or sing liberation war songs with sufficient enthusiasm is likely to be pummeled to the ground by the young men and women in Zanu-PF bandanas and fresh white Mugabe T-shirts.

Even as the latest political upheaval seemed to deliver victory on a plate to the 84-year-old in this Friday's presidential runoff, the Zanu-PF militia - who have so effectively terrorised the population - were keeping up their assault yesterday.

From Hwange to Harare, the abductions, torture and beatings of opposition activists and supporters have continued. The police raided the opposition Movement for Democratic Change's headquarters and hauled away scores of men, women and children who had sought shelter there from the terror campaign.

That has left those who voted for Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC presidential candidate who won the first round of elections in March, divided over whether he should have pulled out of the ballot.

Many wanted the chance to put a nail in Mugabe's political coffin. But in rural areas, which have borne the brunt of the state's assault on voters, many had already decided that the only way to survive was to play Mugabe's game.

"The MDC was not there to give us confidence," said Eleanor Muzokomba, an MDC supporter who fled her rural Manicaland village after she was severely beaten. "They were gone. They could not protect us. What were we supposed to do? Some said they would not vote. They were the brave ones. The others will vote for Zanu-PF and stay alive. Now we do not have to make a choice."

Joseph Kuratidzi, an opposition activist in Mashonaland, agreed: "Mugabe said he will never give up power. It was a mistake to think a vote would change that. When you vote you let him know who to kill. We were all targets," he said.

But there are those who say that too much blood had already been spilled not to make the final push.

"People are angry," said Albert Muhpango, a Harare voter. "They would have voted and voted for MDC. Tsvangirai has betrayed them. We have already risked our lives to get rid of Mugabe. He didn't have the right to tell us to stop. No one thinks Mugabe is going to stop killing us. Now he is going to try to wipe out the MDC."

According to some, every day that Mugabe extends his rule costs lives through the quiet, largely unseen deaths of those condemned by insufficient food, lack of medicines in the hospitals and a shortage of anti-retroviral medicines to hold Aids at bay.

The crisis has also left the country's white population more edgy than they have been in a long time. Even during the farm invasions, the tens of thousands of white Zimbabweans who live in the cities felt largely protected.

But as Mugabe's racial rhetoric has intensified, they have come under increasing scrutiny and even hostility from elements in Zanu-PF. Some have been hauled from their cars and beaten up in Harare.

Though such beatings are rare, they have sent a judder of fear through the white community, and the rumor mill is kept at full grind. Some white Zimbabweans say there is an informal curfew on them and refuse to leave their homes.

The fears have been exacerbated by the gangs of Zanu-PF activists moving door to door after dark, rounding up the maids and gardeners for "reorientation meetings". What used to be viewed as a rural problem of intimidation has now penetrated deeply into Harare's plush suburbs.

It is not enough simply to pay lip service to supporting Mugabe. Each night state television carries video footage of rallies in which MDC voters are forced to publicly renounce their support for Tsvangirai with lengthy explanations of how they were duped into believing he stood for a better life when in fact he was just selling the country to the British.

Now, after a dose of reorientation, they know better. At least Mugabe hopes they do, but just in case he made it clear to opposition voters earlier this month.

"We are not going to give up our country because of a mere X. How can a ballpoint pen fight with a gun?" he said. His message - that it does not matter how you vote, the outcome of this election has been decided by those wielding weapons - has not been lost on Zimbabwean voters.