Come every election time, we hear a lot of talk of a desperate government using food to buy votes in order to win elections. The next elections on 29 March are not an exception. President Robert Mugabe’s‘ ruling Zanu PF party is once again being accused by the MDC of using grain as a political tool to bribe voters.

Zimbabwe is currently experiencing severe food shortages. And because of the current economic problems, the country is also facing another drought despite the good rainfall this season.

But given the current food shortages that the country is experiencing, any responsible government will import food to feed it’s people. There is nothing wrong with that! Which is what the government is doing.

The government has been importing food to supplement what ever little they have and it’s not like they have just started now. Most of the imported food goes to the rural people, the same people who suffer most from droughts and current economic problems. The same people who vote for the ruling Zanu PF party. Si is it helping people and buying votes at the same time?

The past elections have shown that the urban majority don’t vote. This is where the opposition parties get most of their votes, so probably that’s why they don’t win elections. It would make sense for the ruling party to buy votes in urban areas in order to tap into some of the opposition supporters‘ base isn’t it!
After all some of these opposition party leaders are not even known to the rural people, even Morgan Tsvangirayi lost in his rural home area in the last presidential elections.

There have been a lot of these stories on how the government is is using different tactics to get people to vote for them. Some have even talked of devices which monitor who people are voting for, and all these vote buying stories. Well most of it with no evidence at all.
It is important for people to concentrate on real bread and butter issues. People will in most cases put their vote where they can trust, unless otherwise.

Should the people starve because any food aid to them now will be perceived as vote buying. Some people would rather see the ordinary person suffer to prove their point. Which in this case is change in government.

Related posts:

1. Watch President Robert Mugabe’s Interview With CNN Watch Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, talking to Christiane Amanpour from...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.