For a prime minister or president to last a decade in power is considered good going in most countries.
Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe has been at the top of the greasy pole for 28 years and if he gets his way in forthcoming elections, he’ll be holding the reins for a few years yet.
But then Zimbabwe is not like most countries. Millions of its people are hungry and many are without clean water.
The economy is in tatters and has the world’s highest inflation rate, evidenced by ridiculously high denomination bank notes that wouldn’t look out of place on a Monopoly board.
Mugabe dominates the political landscape with the opposition under the cosh, sometimes literally.
Long suffering
Against this alarming background, the long-suffering citizens of Zimbabwe go the polls on March 29.
They’ll have three main candidates to choose from – the incumbent president, a former finance minister from the ruling party and the leader of one opposition faction, Morgan Tsvangirai.
Just to complicate matters there are also local government, parliamentary and senate elections on the same day as the presidential one.
There are also concerns that people have not been given enough information about the new process of voting.
Then there are logistical issues such as voters names missing from the electoral register.
Chaos
No wonder that one Zimbabwean political commentator was predicting `unprecedented chaos’ on polling day.
Not that there’ll be any Western observers to monitor things. Mugabe has banned all European countries from sending observers.
Instead reps will be sent from China, Iran, Indonesia, among other places.
Tearfund is urging supporters to pray for Zimbabwe as it enters this election period.
Tearfund’s Karyn Beattie, said, `We might feel powerless to act but we can pray. And that is more valuable than any action we could take.’