Zimbabwe: Comment

THIS year's election is remarkable for the unashamed manner in which the State, bereft of a plausible election campaign platform, has decided on outright vote-buying.

President Robert Mugabe leads his party in offering inducements of computers to schools throughout the country. Ordinarily such support to the educational sector would not raise eyebrows. However, when this is done in order to rally voters to a political cause and to garner votes, it raises serious questions about the extent to which State resources can be abused for purposes.

It is cynical that the government can purport on one hand to be concerned about education -- by donating computers to schools -- when on the other it completely ignores the plight of teachers over poor salaries. Consequently teachers are entering the third week of their strike with no immediate solution in sight.

Desperation belies the government's vote-buying agenda. In most of the areas where beneficiaries of the President's largesse are located there is no electricity to power the computers. But that is just one small aspect of the paradox.

There just aren't enough computer teachers and equally there is a shortage of technicians to maintain them.

Yesterday saw the launch of the so-called third phase of the farm mechanisation programme. We know what the first two phases were about, so this one is no different: it is a desperate attempt at vote-buying. The timing is blatant. This is what happens when an electoral management body opts to play the observer and allows an interested party -- the ruling party -- to get into the driving seat of the electoral process.

Running parallel to this exercise is another in which urban voters are being

offered stands by an organisation that promotes the interests of the ruling party. And it hasn't been shy about who the recipients of the stands should support during the 29 March elections.

In Harare alone the ruling party has been offering stands to residents in Harare North and South constituencies on condition that they produce party membership cards.

Rural voters are being enticed with offers of grain that is being imported from Malawi and Zambia, while the military has been awarded hefty salary increases -- this at a time when government is ignoring the plight of teachers, nurses and doctors.

While it may be difficult to end the practice of vote-buying during the current campaign, there must be an agreement among Zimbabweans and political parties that outlaws vote-buying. Penalties could include outright barring from seeking office of candidates guilty of the exercise.

The problem with entrenching vote-buying is not only its abuse of resources bought by taxpayers' money to further the interests of a particular political party, but it demeans the essence of political parties going out to voters on the basis of their programmes. Vote-buying is a dangerous process. It belittles the voter.

For the purpose of the 29 March polls, voters should go ahead and accept whatever they are offered, but they must then proceed to vote for the party they believe demonstrates the determination -- as opposed to the rhetoric -- to rescue the country from the crisis it has been subjected to during the past decade.

There are a select few who will vote for those dispensing such largesse, but the fruits of the struggle for democracy are not for the few. The benefits must cascade to all citizens of Zimbabwe.