Red flags ahead of July 30 elections

THE campaign season is already in full-swing and judging from what is happening from the terraces it seems the electoral playingfield has shifted from being “very” uneven to being relatively “even”, although there are still concerns around the independence of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec), the integrity of the biometric voter registration (BVR) process, the auditing of the voters’ roll, the overbearing influence of the security sector, the politicisation of traditional leaders, repealing of repressive laws and the unequal access to the public media, which continues to hog the limelight.

One thing about the “new” dispensation is that opposition political parties and candidates have seized the opportunities afforded to them by offline and digital affordances to campaign and mobilise beyond the narrow confines of the urban spaces.

In the “old” dispensation, it was very difficult for opposition parties and candidates to reach out to those in the rural areas.

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