Middle East & Africa | Big brother will see you now

China is helping Zimbabwe to build a surveillance state

Oppressive regimes stick together

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Aaron Ufumeli/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock (9342107c)Residents register at a registration centre at the Town House in Harare, Zimbabwe, 29 January 2018. The exercise has been extended until end of February 2018. Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa has said the elections will be held before June 2018 and the dates will be announced soon. Mnangagwa will be representing the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (Zanu PF).Voter registration exercise extended in Zimbabwe, Harare - 29 Jan 2018
|Bulawayo and Harare

REGISTERING TO vote in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second city, isn’t easy. The only registration centre is two bus journeys from the most populous suburbs. Nationwide there are just 71 voter-registration centres, or one for every 216,000 people (though some mobile ones are operating ahead of a general election next year).

This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Big brother will see you now”

The winter war

From the December 17th 2022 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

More from Middle East & Africa

Sudanese refugees in Chad

America concludes genocide has been committed in Sudan—again

The move highlights the magnitude of Sudan’s civil war but does little to end it

An inside view of the empty Baabda Palace

Lebanon tries yet again to elect a new president

But it will not be easy to convince its corrupt politicians to reform


A man sits in front of a destroyed building in Daraya suburb on December 25, 2024 in Damascus, Syria

The West is making a muddle of its Syria sanctions

Outsiders should be much clearer about how and when they will be lifted


Alawites formed Syria’s elite. Now they are terrified

Fear of reprisal stalks the heartlands of the Assad regime

From inside an obliterated Gaza, gunfire not a ceasefire

In north Gaza the IDF is now facing “a bitter guerrilla war”

Mozambique’s opposition leader flies home into chaos

Will Venâncio Mondlane’s arrival on January 9th deepen or ease political crisis?