FORGET about education. Forget about job creation, even though unemployment is running at 80 per cent. The 2005 parliamentary election in Zimbabwe is all about the threat posed by a middle-aged man living thousands of miles away.

President Mugabe, who since 2000 has made no secret of his contempt for Britain, has dubbed next week’s vote the “anti-Blair election”. Demonisation of the Prime Minister has become the central platform of the ruling Zanu (PF) party’s campaign.

Yesterday on page 3 of the government-run Herald newspaper, the country’s biggest, a full-page advertisement declared: “Bury Blair, Vote Zanu PF.” In bullet points, the British Prime Minister was blamed for everything from “racist factory closures” to “politically motivated price increases” and sanctions.

Nearly every Zanu (PF) campaign speech contains angry references to Mr Blair, whom Mr Mugabe accuses of financing the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

“It’s like Tony Blair is having to fight an election campaign on two fronts — in Britain and here,” Andrew Moyse, project co-ordinator for Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe, said.

The bizarre campaign has many urban voters perplexed. Foster, a security guard in Harare who did not want to give his full name for fear of reprisals, said: “Why is he talking about Blair when people are starving in this country?” Primrose, a young professional, said: “This has to be one of the most irrelevant platforms ever.” Munya, who owns an IT company, said the focus on Blair was “ nonsense propaganda”.

But Zanu (PF)’s campaign is designed to woo, or rather scare, rural voters by suggesting that if the opposition wins, Zimbabwe will became a de facto colony of Britain once more, and that land will be returned to white farmers. In a rally near the South African border on Tuesday, President Mugabe told the crowd: “Our heritage needs to be protected from neocolonialists like Blair.”

Brian Raftopoulos, Associate Professor of Development Studies at the University of Zimbabwe, said that with the land reform programme behind him, Mr Mugabe has had to find an outside area of focus — Mr Blair — “to displace discussion of the problems he faces at home”.

No matter how strange the anti-Blair message may seem, President Mugabe is having no problem getting it across. All electronic media are government-controlled, despite a ruling by the Supreme Court five years ago that such a monopoly was unconstitutional.

In rural areas, where more than 60 per cent of people rely on radio for their information, they are fed a daily diet of Zanu (PF) propaganda. Since election coverage began on February 26, Zimbabwe Television Network, the country’s only terrestrial television station, has given 82 per cent of its time to Zanu (PF), and 18 per cent to the MDC, according to Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe. The newspapers are scarcely any better. Under the draconian Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, four independent newspapers have been closed since 2003, including the Daily News, which had become the most popular newspaper in the country.

Dozens of local journalists have been harassed, and a few weeks ago three journalists working for foreign media — including the Times correspondent, Jan Raath, who had lived here for 30 years — were forced to leave the country after being accused of spying. The remaining independent newspapers are mainly weeklies and too expensive for most Zimbabweans.

The Government’s Herald newspaper, which is delivered to guests at most hotels in the capital, does not even make a token attempt at objectivity. Yesterday its two main leading articles were titled “Zim proves critics wrong” and “MDC — a body without soul”.

A TALE OF TWO POLES

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