BY FARAI MUTSAKA
Colorful campaign posters adorn street poles, buildings, vehicles and trees in Zimbabwe, but the buzz surrounding the country’s upcoming general election appears to end there.
The presidential and parliamentary elections taking place Wednesday are crucial to determining the future of a southern African nation endowed with vast mineral resources and rich agricultural land. But for many people in the educated but underemployed population, the daily grind to put food on the table inhibits interest in politics.
“What elections?” Kaleen Mbase, a 33-year-old Kuwadzana township resident, quipped as she halfheartedly chipped into a subdued political discussion at a local bar in the capital, Harare. “Elections have brought nothing but suffering, I don’t expect anything different this year. There is no change, no matter how many times we vote.”
It wasn’t like this five years ago, when Zimbabwe prepared to hold its first elections since a coup ended the
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