Poor Zimbabwe villagers hope vote brings change

By Muchena Zigomo

UMGUZA, Zimbabwe (Reuters) - Like many other Zimbabweans, villager Betty Sithuthu's main hope is that Saturday's elections will help put more food on her table.

"We just hope that this voting of ours will change the way that we are living here," said 35-year-old Sithuthu after casting her vote at Gadade village in Umguza in the southern Matabeleland province, an opposition stronghold.

President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party wrestled the Umguza seat from the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in the last parliamentary elections in 2005.

The opposition says that vote was rigged and believes the ruling party will cheat again this time too.

ZANU-PF says the villagers changed their minds because they had been given land under a redistribution programme and were disillusioned with the MDC for failing to improve their lives when it held the seat before.

This time around, villagers reliant on subsistence farming say the government has not offered enough aid after drought ravaged their crops and everyone talks of change.

"Things have been too hard for too long. I think now there needs to be a change and they (government) need to take us more seriously," said Sithuthu's neighbour Sagodolu Sikhosana, who also voted in Saturday's crucial Zimbabwean election.

Mugabe faces an unprecedented challenge from main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and former ally Simba Makoni.