ZIMBABWE: Last week, Movement for Democratic Change MP Trudy Stevenson was arrested on a Harare street corner for handing out flyers which urged people to support her party in the coming election.
Stevenson, who is the party's only white female MP, and her colleagues were arrested for obstructing traffic, yet the dozens of beggars and hawkers involved in their own forms of obstruction in the area were left alone by the police.
"We were released fairly quickly really. At this stage, I have been in jail a few times, but only for a few days at a time. I don't suffer as much as most of my colleagues do," Stevenson said before yesterday's MDC rally in Harare's Highfield suburb.
Stevenson, who has been in politics since 1992 and is a former teacher and translator, was in high spirits and full of optimism because she believes the MDC will surprise people when the votes are counted after polling on Thursday.
"He [ President Robert Mugabe] thought we were dead and buried, but we have been working underground in the countryside, which is his support base, for over a year now. "I fully expect us to get more seats this time around," she remarked.
Rural MDC candidate Shakespeare Maga is standing for election in the Mhondoro district, which is about 60km from Harare. Until recently, he was not interested in politics, but he now feels it is necessary for as many people as possible to become involved.
"The reason we are in this situation is because not enough people who believe in democracy become involved, especially those who are educated," he said.
Maga also thinks that the balance in this week's election has been tipped in favour of the MDC because people in the rural areas have become increasingly angry with their situation. "Over the last year or so, Zanu-PF has blocked food aid because they thought the non-governmental organisations were pro-MDC. This has really counted against them. The rural people are now very angry with them because they have been left hungry. They [ Zanu-PF] have been campaigning in the rural areas for two years now, but we have only been at it for one month. Even so, I believe that things are going well," he said.
The MDC won 57 seats in the 2000 parliamentary election, but it has lost six of those seats since as a result of the deaths of six of its MPs, some of whom died in mysterious circumstances.
Zimbabwe's parliament has 150 seats in total. However, as the result of a law introduced by President Mugabe before the 2000 election, 30 of these seats are retained for appointment at the pleasure of the president.
Consequently, if the MDC is to have a majority in the parliament, it must win 76 of the 120 seats which are being contested. To have a full constitutional majority, the party would need to win 100 seats.