other staff of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, all of whom have assumed militaristic functions as the war has developed. Normal day-to-day activities came to a halt as the biggest military operation in the country's history swung into action. Schools and teachers' colleges were closed throughout the election period for example, staff and students having been called up as part of a general mobilization of all available manpower. Deliveries of seed cotton were suspended to all but two depots for the same reason. White males were not permitted to leave the country during the run-up to the elections, except in exceptional circumstances. It has been estimated that up to 100,000 men were armed and put in the field to "protect" voters - excluding the auxiliary forces or private armies, whose members likewise played a key role in getting voters to the polls.
In an interview on 1 April the Commissioner of Police Mr. P.K. Allum said that special election preparations including switching regular police to 12 hour shifts without time off. There would be increased patrolling by special constabulary units: "we have positively fleets of vehicles patrolling the towns these days - or nights rather - full of men who are armed and just looking for the enemy. Here in Salisbury, they are numbered by their scores". The Joint Minister of Combined Operations Mr. Hilary Squires had earlier confirmed that "the idea is to saturate as far as possible the areas where protection will be needed with as many protecting forces as we can muster to provide the maximum security".
The prevailing conditions of political and military repression in which the elections were held have been described in previous issues of FOCUS. While the regime undoubtedly intended the elections as dramatic proof of its prevailing military strength and resilience, the level of security force activity apparent during polling could not possibly be sustained for more than a short period at this advanced stage of the liberation war, without substantial support for the regime from outside.
THE TURN-OUT The regime has claimed that 64.4% of a total estimated electorate of somewhat over 2.8 million people cast their votes. The size of the electorate is an extrapolation from the population figures returned by the 1969 Census, the most recent survey to have been undertaken by the regime. Updated population figures published each month by the Central Statistical Office provisionally estimate the country's population at 30 June 1978 as 6,640,000 Africans, 260,000 whites, 10,500 Asians and 23,600 Coloureds, total 6,930,000.
In the absence of alternative statistical sources it is not easy to either confirm or refute the regime's calculations. Election officials admitted that the sizes of the electorates calculated for each of the eight provinces into which the country was divided in lieu of constituencies for the 72 black reserved seats, were likely to have been significantly affected by population shifts resulting from the war and other factors. This, together with the fact that people were free to vote in whichever province they chose, would, it is officially maintained, explain the turnouts of over 100% allegedly achieved in some areas. Up to a ¼ million people displaced by the war have left the country completely however, and are living as refugees in the front line states.
Prior to the elections, the regime decided to enfranchise the 300,000+ Africans of alien origin - 9% of the electorate - estimated to be living in Zimbabwe at any one time as migrant workers with their dependants. On some white farms 90% of the black workforce are migrants from Malawi and Mozambique in particular. Anyone who had been permanently resident in the country for at least two years was entitled to vote, along with citizens over the age of 18, on production of documentary proof of identity or accompanied by another identifiable person willing to vouch for him or her. In practice, since there was no prior registration of African voters and no electoral roll, the difference between citizens and non-citizens was to a large extent irrelevant. Polling officers appear to have undertaken only the most cursory check of voters' ages, length of residence and other credentials.
Substantial sections of the black population were in no position to withstand the various pressures upon them to go and vote. Apart from foreign migrant workers, who face potential deportation if they lose their jobs, they included up to ½ million refugees living as squatters in the urban areas and acutely vulnerable to officialdom and the police; an estimated ½ million-plus people living "behind the wire" in protected and consolidated villages; an unknown number of people, running into the thousands, the majority adults, detained without charge in detention camps, police station and security force camps at the time of the elections; the convicted prison population, including well over 1,000 people serving sentences for political offences; and persons employed as wage labourers on white owned farms and other enterprises. According to one journalist, election officials in Salisbury estimated that 50.5% of the electorate was comprised of the workforce in the agricultural sector, mining, industry and commerce, and their dependants over the age of 18.
White employers played a key role in getting African voters to the polls. Farm and plantation workers were transported to polling stations by lorry and tractor. In the urban areas, mobile polling booths toured factories and work stopped for an hour while the labour force recorded their votes. Workers at enterprises such as Dunlops and Rhodesia National Foods in Bulawayo were reported to have been sacked from their jobs, threatened, arrested and detained for opposing the election process.
