Campaign ends amid economic hardships

Friday 28 March 2008

In the last days of the campaign, the opposition accuses President Mugabe of ruining the once-thriving country while blaming economic hardships on sanctions imposed by the West. (Report: C.Dumay)

Friday 28 March 2008

By Reuters

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, facing the toughest election battle of his 28 years in power, handed out hundreds of cars to doctors on Thursday in what opponents say is a vote buying campaign.

Mugabe's opponents said the veteran leader was plotting to rig Saturday's presidential election, in which he faces old rival Morgan Tsvangirai and ruling party defector Simba Makoni.

Both accuse Mugabe, 84, of wrecking what was once one Africa's strongest economies and pauperising its people.

On national television, Mugabe blamed Zimbabwe's troubles on Western sanctions imposed on him and allies to try to force reform. Mugabe said the measures had harmed health care in Zimbabwe, one of the countries worst affected by HIV/AIDS.

"Our health sector (once) operated in a regional and international context that was free of the illegal sanctions which weigh us down today," Mugabe said in a ceremony to give 450 cars to senior and middle-level doctors at government hospitals.

He promised the doctors houses within two years.

In a procedural move, Mugabe told his ministers the cabinet was dissolved ahead of the election.

"I told them that some would return to government, others will be left behind. The good performers will continue," Mugabe told a rally in the town of Bindura, 70 km (44 miles) northeast of Harare.

DAILY HARDSHIP

Tsvangirai's main wing of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said on Thursday it had more evidence of planned ballot rigging and believed Mugabe was planning to declare victory with almost 60 percent of the vote.

Tsvangirai, Makoni and Arthur Mutambara, leader of the MDC's smaller faction, told reporters after holding talks that Mugabe had put the credibility of the election in doubt.

"We believe there is a very well thought out, sophisticated and premeditated plan to steal this election from us," said Makoni.

Mugabe has also handed out farm equipment and public buses in what critics say is an attempt to win political favour ahead of the vote in a country where many can no longer afford even basic needs and food and fuel are in short supply.

The health sector suffers a shortage of drugs and skilled workers because many have gone abroad in search of better pay.

Nurses and doctors have been on strike to demand more pay and all state workers were promised higher salaries by Mugabe during the campaign, but inflation of over 100,000 percent quickly makes pay rises meaningless.

Critics say Mugabe's policies, particularly seizing white-owned farms to give to landless blacks, have led to ruin.

The March 29 presidential, parliamentary and local council polls are seen as the most important since Zimbabwe's independence from Britain in 1980, but few expect a fair vote.

Mugabe, who must win over half the presidential vote to avoid a second round run-off that might unite his opponents, rejects accusations of rigging three elections since 2000.

Tsvangirai told a rally in Chitungwiza just outside Harare that Mugabe had lost touch with reality.

"What Mugabe does not realise is that his system has collapsed," he said.