A chance to break with a nightmarish past
Publish date: 30 July 2018
Issue Number: 784
Diary: IBA Legalbrief Africa
Category: Zimbabwe
About 5.6m registered Zimbabwean voters went to the polls today hoping for a clean break with the past in the first election in 38 years not featuring Robert Mugabe on the ballot paper, writes Legalbrief. Instead, the current President, Emmerson Mnangagwa (75), the man who finally ousted Mugabe in a bloodless coup last November, has gone head to head at the polls with Nelson Chamisa (40) who took over as leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) after Morgan Tsvangirai died earlier this year. Mugabe ruled with an iron fist and every time in eight elections that fist ensured victory for him, Wilf Mbanga, the founder, editor and publisher of The Zimbabwean weekly, notes in The Guardian. He says while Mnangagwa has also crushed his enemies ruthlessly in the past, his iron fist lies within a well-padded velvet glove.
Whoever wins, this election heralds a new dawn for Zimbabwe. Mbanga writes: ‘Certainly Mnangagwa brings a lot of baggage from the Mugabe era – having been the former president’s righthand man. But he is different in many significant ways – today, Mugabe even urged voters to turn their backs on his leadership, and went so far as to wish Chamisa well. Most importantly, Mnangagwa understands business and is determined to resuscitate Zimbabwe’s moribund economy and give the people what they so desperately want and need – jobs.’ Mbanga says Chamisa is just as pro-business as Mnangagwa, and to his credit has surrounded himself with several capable technocrats. ‘Should Chamisa win the election, there is no doubt that the world would welcome Zimbabwe back into the fold with open arms. But Mnangagwa is smart enough to realise that international recognition of his government can only come if this election is acknowledged as free and fair by the global community.’
The presidential election is expected to be a tight contest between Mnangagwa and Chamisa, according to a BBC News report which notes parliamentary and local elections are also taking place today. Polls give Mnangagwa a narrow lead over Chamisa. Both leaders are running for the presidency for the first time. Yesterday, Mugabe said he would not vote for his successor. Crowds whistled and broke into chants of ‘Chamisa’ when the MDC leader cast his ballot on the outskirts of Harare, amid a media scrum. ‘We will win this election to the extent it’s free and fair... it's a done deal,’ he reportedly told the BBC. In contrast, Mnangagwa voted in a quiet polling station at a school in the central city of Kwekwe. He tweeted that Zimbabweans should vote with ‘peace in our hearts’. ‘We will sink or swim together,’ he added.
Long lines of voters formed outside polling stations across the country when they opened at 7am. ‘I am very optimistic this morning. This election is free. Things will get better now,’ said Tinashe Musuwo (20) as he cast his vote at Kuwadzana primary school on the outskirts of Harare, an opposition stronghold. A report in The Guardian notes that almost four decades of rule by the 94-year-old Mugabe has left Zimbabwe with a shattered economy, soaring unemployment and a crumbling infrastructure. Nyari Musabeyana, a 30-year-old hairdresser in Kuwadzana, said she had got up early to vote for change. ‘We wish things to be OK in our village. We have no jobs, no cash, no economy. It is the fault of the past government.’ If no candidate wins more than half the votes there will be a runoff in five weeks, though analysts believe this scenario is unlikely. A further possibility is negotiations to form some kind of coalition government if results are very close. The campaign has been peaceful, unlike previous polls that have been marked by systematic intimidation and violence. The MDC has repeatedly claimed that it has been hindered by a flawed electoral roll, ballot paper malpractice, voter intimidation, bias in the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) and free food handed out by the ruling party. There are also widespread fears among opposition activists and supporters that the government or the powerful military will refuse to cede power if defeated. Hundreds of international observers have been accredited, and more than 20 presidential candidates and nearly 130 political parties are participating.
Mnangagwa and the ruling Zanu-PF hope a credible victory will legitimise the power (both party and state) they gained from the ‘soft coup’ that toppled Mugabe, notes a report in The Mercury. With victory, they say, the donors and dollars will flood into the country they have resurrected from nearly two moribund decades. But a new survey suggests Zanu-PF should stall any premature celebration plans. It shows that, in the space of one month, Chamisa’s MDC Alliance has closed the gap with Zanu-PF. The surveys are conducted by Afrobarometer, an independent research network that conducts public attitude surveys across Africa and its Zimbabwean partner, Mass Public Opinion Institute, is a non-profit research organisation.
If Zanu-PF and Mnangagwa do ‘steal’ the Zimbabwe elections today, Tendai Biti and the MDC Alliance will make the country ‘ungovernable’. This is the comment from Biti, leader of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, one of seven parties contesting the elections under the banner of the MDC Alliance, notes a report on the Daily Maverick site. Chamisa, the MDC Alliance’s presidential candidate, has been accused by Zanu-PF of inciting violence because of the same sort of threat. But Biti, in an interview with the DM, reportedly denied that the opposition grouping was planning to initiate violence. He said in the event that it lost the election, the alliance merely planned to exercise its constitutional right to peaceful resistance. Biti is sure that the political playing field is tilted steeply against the MDC.
He also referred to 'the shenanigans around the printing of the ballot papers’, noting complaints from the MDC that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission had been secretive about how the ballots had been printed. ‘If they have nothing to hide on the ballots papers, they should show us the state of the ballots. There is evidence all over Africa of tampering with ballots, through chromatography which allows markers to shift. It sounds like wild allegations. If so, they should demonstrate that. In 2013 I saw ballots ticked as if with a giant machine.’ The DM report notes chromatography is a technique for chemically altering images on paper and the MDC clearly suspects it will be used to boost Zanu-PF’s votes. Biti, a lawyer by profession, but who is widely believed to have done a good job as Finance Minister in the unity government between Zanu-PF and MDC from 2009 to 2013, declined to say whether he was likely to get the same job in an MDC government if it won the election. ‘I can’t appoint myself,’ he said. But would he like to be Finance Minister again? ‘I would like to see Mnangagwa and Zanu-PF gone,’ was his reply.
Full report on the Daily Maverick site
Read M&G: Everything you need to know about Zimbabwe’s election
