A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days

Dare I hope? Dare I dream. Oh, wouldn't this be wonderful?!?!

With elections only eight days away, President Mugabe looks like being overwhelmed by a wave of support for the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai as the 84-year-old leader's grip on power falters.

Mr Tsvangirai's formidable backing in Zimbabwe's urban areas has been consolidated since the election campaign began five weeks ago and now, after a series of forays into the poverty-stricken rural areas where the ruling Zanu (PF) party has hitherto held control, it is clear that Mr Mugabe has a fight on his hands there, too.

On Wednesday Mr Tsvangirai pushed into Mashonaland West, Mr Mugabe's home province, to draw mostly large crowds of exultant peasants responding to his chant of chinja! - Shona for change - in a region where until very recently it would have been almost impossible for his faction of the Movement for Democratic Change to campaign.

In the small farming town of Karoi, 124 miles (200km) north of Harare, at least 8,000 people filled the local rugby ground to give the 56-year-old former national labour movement leader an ecstatic welcome, singing handidzokera shure (no going back) and waving red plastic cards to signify Mr Mugabe's "sending off".

Of course, it should go without saying that we ought to be prepared for the same kind of inflation in Mugabe votes that we see in Zimbabwe's currency once the election actually takes place. But there is a chance--just a chance--that perhaps this time, Mugabe won't get away with it. Then again, Mugabe is denying political opponents access to food, so what do I know?