Zimbabwean church official says elections don't help starving people

Published: 2005-12-05

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (CNS) -- The estimated 10 percent voter turnout in Zimbabwe's elections for a new Senate was not surprising as the country's food, fuel and foreign currency shortages worsen, said Alouis Chaumba, who heads Zimbabwe's Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace. "We are tired of elections," he said in a telephone interview from the capital, Harare, noting that "they are definitely not adding value to our lives here." The Nov. 26 election for the 66-seat Senate, which will have the final word on new laws, "is seen as just another walkover for the ruling party," Chaumba said. "Of far more relevance to our lives is the fact that prices are going up every day and basic groceries are beyond the reach of most" of Zimbabwe's 12 million people, he said, noting that "there are people starving in the drier regions of the country." With laws that guarantee seats to various ruling party loyalists and a boycott campaign by the main opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, President Robert Mugabe's governing ZANU-PF party was set to win before voting started.

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