HARARE – Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his main opponent, Nelson Chamisa, both said on Tuesday they were confident of victory in an election the previous day which observers deemed too early to call.
Mnangagwa said he was receiving “extremely positive” information on the vote. Chamisa said earlier the opposition Movement for Democratic Change had done “exceedingly well” in the vote.
The 75-year-old Mnangagwa and Chamisa, 40, were the main contenders in Monday’s election, the first since Robert Mugabe was removed in a bloodless coup in November.
Western diplomats and local observer groups said the race, which saw a turnout of 75 percent, was too close to call.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission will announce official results within five days of the election although the outcome should be known well before then.
The winner faces the task of putting Zimbabwe back on track after 37 years under Mugabe which were tainted by corruption, mismanagement and diplomatic isolation that caused a crisis in a country that once had one of Africa’s most promising economies.
“The information from our reprentatives on the ground is extremely positive!” Mnangagwa said on his official Twitter feed.
Chamisa had earlier said he was poised for victory, writing on Twitter: “Awaiting ZEC to perform their constitutional duty to officially announce the people’s election results and we are ready to form the next government.”
A Chamisa victory is unlikely to sit well with military generals who plotted Mugabe’s ouster last November, and there could be a pushback.
Some of the generals who orchestrated the coup are now in government, including Vice President Constantino Chiwenga.
Many Zimbabweans worry that should Mnangagwa lose some in the ruling party may not accept the result, given the huge risk they took in removing Mugabe.
Mnangagwa and ZANU-PF have said they will accept the result.
“THIS IS AFRICA”
“If this guy loses there is no way they will handover power,” said Gift Machekera, pointing at a huge banner of Mnangagwa hanging on a building in Harare.
“Those who have the guns have the power. This is Africa.”
Mnangagwa was viewed as the frontrunner, although the latest opinion polls showed a tight race. There will be a runoff on Sept. 8 if no candidate wins more than half the votes.
Several civil society groups are collating results from 10,985 polling posts in parallel with ZEC but are not allowed to release results before the ZEC. A source at one group said it was too early to call a winner but it was looking “very close”.
In the capital Harare, an MDC stronghold, results posted outside some polling stations seen by Reuters showed Chamisa winning by wide margins, but Mnangagwa was expected to claw back ground in the ruling ZANU-PF’s rural heartland.
Urban results tend to emerge quicker than those from rural outposts, where communication is poor.
In some rural constituencies in the east and south of the country, counting of votes was still ongoing but was expected to end early on Tuesday, some parliamentary candidates said.
A credible vote is essential if Zimbabwe is to exit painful sanctions and secure the donor funding and investment needed to stem chronic cash shortages.
The run-up to Monday’s vote was largely peaceful compared to past elections under Mugabe, where the ruling party and war veterans were accused of violence against opponents.
Dozens of people were killed ahead of a runoff in 2008 between Mugabe and MDC-founder Morgan Tsvangirai, who died of cancer in February.
Mugabe emerged on the eve of the election to announce he would vote for the opposition, surprising Mnangagwa who accused him of striking a deal with Chamisa.
Source - Reuters
Tuesday, July 31, 2018
Monday, July 30, 2018
Penplusbytes’ African Elections Project (AEP) is providing a comprehensive coverage of the Zimbabwe general elections slated for Monday 30th July 2018.
Voters have been queuing at election centers all over the country from 7am local time today. This election is the latest turning point in the most tumultuous few months in almost four decades of Zimbabwe’s political history.
In November, Robert Mugabe was forced out of power after 37 years, following a peaceful military takeover supported by the vast majority of the 17 million population. This election could decide the former British colony’s course for decades to come.
The election pits Zanu-PF, the ruling party, against the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the longstanding opposition. Zanu-PF is led by Emmerson Mnangagwa, a 75-year-old former vice president known as “the Crocodile” who took power when Mugabe was ousted. Polls indicate a potentially close race, but one Zanu-PF should win.
The African Elections Project (AEP) established in 2008 to empower journalists to cover elections using Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) across the continent is poised to use new digital tools to cover the elections.
According to the Programmes Director of Penplusbytes, Jerry Sam, “Most analysts have described this elections as a watershed event to determine the political future of Zimbabwe after years under Mugabe’s rule. We look forward to a peaceful elections and subsequent transfer of power as a continent. African Elections Project is excited to be following and bringing audiences up-to-the-minute updates on happenings till when polls close and afterwards.”
He added that AEP is committed to contribute to a better election by working with the media and civil society organizations through the provision of independent information and impartial coverage using ICTs.
In addition to its flagship online portal, http://www.africanelections.org AEP is covering this elections using other new media tools such as Facebook, blogs, SMS and Twitter
The project has recently covered the Malian Elections which took place on Sunday 29th July this year and has successfully covered elections in Botswana, Namibia, Ghana, Mauritania, Mozambique, Malawi, Togo, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Liberia, Uganda, Cameroon and Niger.
Through the AEP, over 100 journalists have been trained in the use of digital tools to cover elections in Africa. Over 17 million citizens have been reached across the continent.
Penplusbytes urges all Zimbabweans to conduct themselves at the polls for a free, fair and peaceful elections.
ABOUT
Penplusbytes is a not-for-profit organization driving change through innovations in three key areas: using new digital technologies to enable good governance and accountability, new media and innovations, and driving oversight for effective utilisation of mining, oil and gas revenue and resources.
#ZimElections: Opposition claim delays are strategies to rig the elections
Zimbabwe's main opposition leader on Monday said reported voting delays were a "deliberate attempt" to undermine his supporters in the country's first election without former leader Robert Mugabe on the ballot.
The allegations by Nelson Chamisa, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change party, intensified concerns about management of the election and the prospect of a dispute over its outcome.
The voting turnout was high and, in a break from the past, peaceful.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa, a former deputy president, has promised a credible vote that he hopes will bring international legitimacy and investment to this southern African country, though a seriously flawed process could signal more stagnation.
Mugabe, 94, ruled Zimbabwe from independence in 1980 until his resignation in November under military pressure and many people are anxious for change.
The opposition was concerned about delays at polling stations in urban areas, where support for the opposition has traditionally been strong, while the ruling ZANU-PF party has dominated many rural areas in past elections marred by violence and irregularities.
"There seems to be a deliberate attempt to suppress and frustrate" urban voters through "unnecessary delays," Chamisa said on Twitter. He acknowledged that there was a "good turnout."
Long lines formed outside many polling stations in Harare, the capital, and elsewhere. Anyone in line as of the 7 p.m. closing time could still vote, though opposition parties were concerned that their supporters could drift away if forced to wait for hours.
Some observers welcomed Zimbabwe's freer political environment but cited worries about bias in state media, a lack of transparency in ballot printing and reports of intimidation by pro-government traditional leaders who are supposed to stay neutral.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, accused of engineering flawed election wins for Mugabe in the past, has said this vote will be free and fair.
"We need peace and we need everyone to be comfortable to go out and exercise their right to vote without fear," said Priscilla Chigumba, a judge who chairs the commission. She said she was confident that voting at most of the country's nearly 11,000 polling stations would be completed by closing time.
About 5.5 million people were registered to vote in an election viewed by many as an opportunity to move beyond decades of political and economic paralysis.
A record of more than 20 presidential candidates and nearly 130 political parties were participating. If no presidential candidate wins 50 percent of the vote, a runoff will be held Sept. 8.
"I want to do this and get on with my business. I am not leaving anything to chance. This is my future," said Emerina Akenda, a first-time voter.
The main contenders were the 75-year-old Mnangagwa, who took over after Mugabe stepped down, and 40-year-old Chamisa, a lawyer and pastor who became head of the main opposition party a few months ago after the death of its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.
After voting in the central city of Kwekwe, where bystanders were silent and grim-faced, Mnangagwa said he was committed to a Zimbabwe in which people have the "freedom to express their views, negative or positive."
Piercing whistles and cheers greeted Chamisa as he voted outside Harare. He said he hoped voting in rural areas would be fair.
Despite Mugabe's troubled legacy, dozens of cheering Zimbabweans gathered outside the polling station in the capital where he voted. Struggling to walk, Mugabe raised his fist to acknowledge them. He had his finger inked and was assisted by his wife into the booth.
Mugabe on Sunday said Chamisa was the only viable candidate and rejected Mnangagwa and the ruling party, saying: "I cannot vote for those who have tormented me."
Chigumba, the electoral commission chief, said police had been informed about two presidential candidates who might have violated the law by campaigning after the cutoff time. She didn't name them, but they likely were Chamisa and Mnangagwa. Both issued public statements on Sunday.
Even though Monday was a public holiday, some government offices were open so that those who had lost identity cards could get replacements and then cast their ballots.
Inside polling stations, voters were given three ballot papers: one for their presidential pick, another for member of parliament and a third for local councilor. Polling officers helped voters put each ballot paper in the right box.
"We need change because we have suffered a lot here," said 65-year-old Mable Mafaro while voting in Harare. "We have suffered a lot. That's all."
Source: ABC News
The allegations by Nelson Chamisa, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change party, intensified concerns about management of the election and the prospect of a dispute over its outcome.
The voting turnout was high and, in a break from the past, peaceful.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa, a former deputy president, has promised a credible vote that he hopes will bring international legitimacy and investment to this southern African country, though a seriously flawed process could signal more stagnation.
Mugabe, 94, ruled Zimbabwe from independence in 1980 until his resignation in November under military pressure and many people are anxious for change.
The opposition was concerned about delays at polling stations in urban areas, where support for the opposition has traditionally been strong, while the ruling ZANU-PF party has dominated many rural areas in past elections marred by violence and irregularities.
"There seems to be a deliberate attempt to suppress and frustrate" urban voters through "unnecessary delays," Chamisa said on Twitter. He acknowledged that there was a "good turnout."
Long lines formed outside many polling stations in Harare, the capital, and elsewhere. Anyone in line as of the 7 p.m. closing time could still vote, though opposition parties were concerned that their supporters could drift away if forced to wait for hours.
Some observers welcomed Zimbabwe's freer political environment but cited worries about bias in state media, a lack of transparency in ballot printing and reports of intimidation by pro-government traditional leaders who are supposed to stay neutral.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, accused of engineering flawed election wins for Mugabe in the past, has said this vote will be free and fair.
"We need peace and we need everyone to be comfortable to go out and exercise their right to vote without fear," said Priscilla Chigumba, a judge who chairs the commission. She said she was confident that voting at most of the country's nearly 11,000 polling stations would be completed by closing time.
About 5.5 million people were registered to vote in an election viewed by many as an opportunity to move beyond decades of political and economic paralysis.
A record of more than 20 presidential candidates and nearly 130 political parties were participating. If no presidential candidate wins 50 percent of the vote, a runoff will be held Sept. 8.
"I want to do this and get on with my business. I am not leaving anything to chance. This is my future," said Emerina Akenda, a first-time voter.
The main contenders were the 75-year-old Mnangagwa, who took over after Mugabe stepped down, and 40-year-old Chamisa, a lawyer and pastor who became head of the main opposition party a few months ago after the death of its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.
After voting in the central city of Kwekwe, where bystanders were silent and grim-faced, Mnangagwa said he was committed to a Zimbabwe in which people have the "freedom to express their views, negative or positive."
Piercing whistles and cheers greeted Chamisa as he voted outside Harare. He said he hoped voting in rural areas would be fair.
Despite Mugabe's troubled legacy, dozens of cheering Zimbabweans gathered outside the polling station in the capital where he voted. Struggling to walk, Mugabe raised his fist to acknowledge them. He had his finger inked and was assisted by his wife into the booth.
Mugabe on Sunday said Chamisa was the only viable candidate and rejected Mnangagwa and the ruling party, saying: "I cannot vote for those who have tormented me."
Chigumba, the electoral commission chief, said police had been informed about two presidential candidates who might have violated the law by campaigning after the cutoff time. She didn't name them, but they likely were Chamisa and Mnangagwa. Both issued public statements on Sunday.
Even though Monday was a public holiday, some government offices were open so that those who had lost identity cards could get replacements and then cast their ballots.
Inside polling stations, voters were given three ballot papers: one for their presidential pick, another for member of parliament and a third for local councilor. Polling officers helped voters put each ballot paper in the right box.
"We need change because we have suffered a lot here," said 65-year-old Mable Mafaro while voting in Harare. "We have suffered a lot. That's all."
Source: ABC News
#ZimElections2018 Update: Massive turnout and long queues
Eligible voters have been at the polls since 7am local time (05:00 GMT) in an election that has been described as a watershed event that will rid the country of the challenges encountered during ex-President Robert Mugabe’s regime and hopefully propel Zimbabwe towards economic recovery.
So far the voting process has been smooth devoid of any reports of breaches to Zimbabwe’s electoral laws. However, there are early reports of huge turnout at various election stations resulting in long queues especially in the capital, Harare.
“I started queuing at 3am to ensure I participate in this elections. I want the winner to provide us jobs", Audacious Kumbuzi a first time voter reporter told AEP.
Liberia’s former President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, part of the international election observer team told BBC at the David Livingstone Primary School in Harare “I think this is an exciting moment for Zimbabweans to change the course of their country through their votes. The long queues tell us that they are very enthusiastic about this opportunity to ensure they are part of this process.”
Both leading candidates for the presidential seat, 75-year-old Emmerson Mnangagwa and the 40-year-old Nelson Chamisa, a lawyer and pastor who is vying to become Zimbabwe's youngest head of state have cast their votes.
Halfway through voting, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) addressed the nation and stated that most polling stations opened on time across the country and used the opportunity to remind stakeholders that only accredited observers will be allowed into polling stations.
Zimbabweans have three votes today – for president, Members of Parliament and local councillors. After marking the papers in the cardboard booths, voters then cast their ballots in three boxes.
Whoever wins the presidential seat will face the enormous task of putting Zimbabwe back on track by tackling corruption and mismanagement of the economy, which characterised the 37 years of Mugabe rule.
Polls will close at 7pm local time (17:00GMT) however voters already in queues will be allowed to exercise their franchise.
AEP
Get the latest news and updates on elections in Africa by Following us on twitter @africanelection and like the African Elections Project Facebook page
#ZimElections2018: Polls Open in first post-Mugabe election
Polls have opened in over 10,000 polling stations across Zimbabwe where 5.5million eligible Zimbabwe voters are expected to elect a new leader in the country’s first election since authoritarian leader Robert Mugabe was ousted last year.
The incumbent 75 year old President, Emmerson Mnangagwa , Mugabe's former ally in the ruling ZANU-PF party, faces opposition leader 40 year old Nelson Chamisa of the MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) in a historic vote where alleged ballot fraud and the likelihood of a disputed result clouding voting day.
Mugabe, who was ousted by the military in November, made a surprise intervention on the eve of the elections, calling for voters to vote out ZANU-PF office saying he cannot trust them.
Altogether 23 candidates will contest the presidential election. Fifty-five parties are also contesting the parliamentary election, the biggest number by far in Zimbabwe's post-colonial history.
The presidential election outcome would be announced within five days according to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC). If no candidate gains the required majority to be declared a winner, the elections goes into a second round with the two leading candidates contesting each other.
What are your expectations? The African Elections Project will be covering the elections online especially on Twitter. Join the conversation!
What are your expectations? The African Elections Project will be covering the elections online especially on Twitter. Join the conversation!
AEP
Get the latest news and updates on elections in Africa by Following us on twitter @africanelection and like the African Elections Project Facebook page
Saturday, July 28, 2018
On the campaign trail, Zimbabweans cautiously test new freedoms
In a narrow beige office at the end of a narrow beige corridor, keyboards frantically click and clack as a team of call center employees scrambles to take down reports of what sounds like an unusual criminal enterprise.
“So they told you that food aid was only for supporters of the ruling party?”
“They said there are cameras in the voting booth so they can see who you vote for?”
Every day, dozens of calls pour into an election complaints hotline in Zimbabwe’s capital, organized by a coalition of civil society groups called “We The People.”
As the country’s July 30 vote approaches, they say the number of complaints is ticking upwards, with most callers saying they’ve been threatened with violence if they don’t toe a certain party line.
In Zimbabwe, of course, there is good reason to take that seriously. Under former strongman President Robert Mugabe, past elections were marred by brutal abductions and killings, and they often began with these same kinds of dangerous rumblings. But We The People says there may be less intuitive reasons for the rising volume of calls as well.
“We have to ask ourselves, are violent incidents growing or are people just feeling emboldened to report more?” says Rumbi Zinyemba, a researcher with We The People. “We really don’t know.”
It’s the kind of contradiction that’s everywhere in Zimbabwe in the lead-up to the polls next week, the first in the country’s history without Mr. Mugabe on the ballot.
On the one hand, many Zimbabweans say the country has become dramatically more open in the eight months since Mugabe was deposed in a bloodless coup. People complain freely about the new president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, in markets and shared mini-buses and the 12-hour queues to draw cash that snake around many banks here – criticism that would have been unthinkable in Mugabe’s time.
Meanwhile, opposition candidates, led by presidential challenger Nelson Chamisa of the Movement for Democratic Change Alliance (MDC), have campaigned widely, and mostly without intimidation. And Mr. Mnangagwa himself has called repeatedly for peace – a brisk 180 from Mugabe’s threats in past elections that his supporters would go to war if he lost the vote.
At the same time, there is still wide skepticism that anything approaching a fair election is possible. The ruling party, ZANU-PF (the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front) has a steely grip on the electoral body, which has drawn ire for an error-riddled voter roll with a 141-year-old voter, and a ballot that places Mnangagwa at the top of the page of 23 candidates, among other things. It has the support of the military – who helped Mnangagwa depose his former boss last year – and the state broadcaster. The station sometimes airs ruling party rallies in their tedious, hours-long glory, breaking only occasionally to show footage of the president opening a school or hospital. “Real change is here,” ads blare chirpily during the commercial breaks. “Vote Emmerson Mnangagwa for President.”
Nearly half of voters think that incorrect results will be announced, and that there will be violence, according to an opinion survey released in mid-July. On Tuesday, the United Nations called for peaceful elections amid increasing reports of intimidation.
“Right now, Mnangagwa is preaching peace, but the default, the factory setting for ZANU-PF, is violence,” says Dewa Mavhinga, the southern Africa director for Human Rights Watch. “So if they are pushed too much, the switch could be sudden and swift. The machinery of violence in Zimbabwe is still very much intact.”
An unfamiliar country
Still, after 37 years under the same leader, any election without him can feel like it is taking place on another planet.
On a recent morning in the upscale Borrowdale suburb of Harare, Phil Collins crooned from the speakers as Mnangagwa addressed a cheering crowd of white farmers. His predecessor authorized violent forced takeovers of many white-owned farms. But now, they turn out in shirts and hats with the president’s face plastered across them.
“If you were born here, you were born here, you are a citizen, you have the same documentation like everybody else,” said Mnangagwa. “There is no distinction.”
Meanwhile, in many rural constituencies once synonymous with election violence, opposition candidates have campaigned with brazen openness.
“Before, we campaigned in the dark so we wouldn’t be seen,” says Looney Nyalugwe, an MDC candidate for the local ward council in Murehwa, an area of rolling rural homesteads in the rocky hills about 60 miles outside Harare. “This time the worst that’s happened is that we can’t seem to stop our posters from getting torn down.”
On a recent morning, she and her small campaign team were hiking across the round huts and tiny farms that dot their constituency to visit potential voters. It was a mundane outing, replete with cooing at babies and complimenting people’s gardens.
Even five years ago, however, none of this ordinary politicking would have been possible here. In 2008, several supporters of her party were murdered in this area, and many others were violently intimidated into supporting ZANU-PF. At one house Ms. Nyalugwe visits on her door-to-door blitz, the residents recalled a brutal beating their son received that election year for supporting the opposition.
A few days after they visited him in the hospital, they were asleep in a small outbuilding of their house when they awoke to a wall of light outside. When they flung open the door, their house was on fire. Someone had locked it from the outside, hoping to kill them.
Violence colored the election in 2013, too.
“So people are still afraid sometimes to express their views in this area,” Nyalugwe says. “But this time around, I feel even some ZANU-PF supporters are willing to listen to something new.”
Looking back, and ahead
For Nyalugwe, like many Zimbabweans, her relationship to the ruling party is tangled up in history – both her own and the country’s – in complicated ways.
Decades ago, as a teenager, she joined the other women in her village to covertly prepare huge vats of goat meat and sticky sadza – maize meal – to take to the guerrillas hiding in the hills and forests nearby as they fought white minority rule.
When the chimurenga – or revolutionary struggle – ended with independence in 1980, those who had fought the war became the new country’s rulers. And ZANU-PF’s bookishly charming leader, Robert Mugabe, became the first prime minister.
“But then we waited a long time for development that never came,” she says.
Still, many Zimbabweans say ZANU-PF’s history as the party of liberation is a debt that’s hard to shake.
“At times it’s been hard to keep supporting this party, especially as the economy has gotten bad,” says Lovemore Kayiti, a road-maintenance worker who attended a recent ZANU-PF rally in the fishing town of Norton. “But at the end of the day we look back to before independence and how life was then, and so even though there are not jobs, we think to ourselves – this is the party that brought us this far.”
Plus, many supporters say, that party has reinvented itself since Mugabe’s ousting. It has a new face now. Quite literally.
The crowd milling around Norton that day were, almost to a person, wearing T-shirts sporting Mnangagwa’s warm, gap-toothed smile. The speakers who stood to address the crowd all sported blazers and dresses fashioned from fabric checkered with the president’s face.
“The previous leadership treated the people here badly at times,” said Dexter Nduna, the provincial chair of ZANU-PF. “But we’ve had enough. Our new leadership is ready to return Zimbabwe to its people.”
Source: The Christian Science Monitor
“So they told you that food aid was only for supporters of the ruling party?”
“They said there are cameras in the voting booth so they can see who you vote for?”
Every day, dozens of calls pour into an election complaints hotline in Zimbabwe’s capital, organized by a coalition of civil society groups called “We The People.”
As the country’s July 30 vote approaches, they say the number of complaints is ticking upwards, with most callers saying they’ve been threatened with violence if they don’t toe a certain party line.
In Zimbabwe, of course, there is good reason to take that seriously. Under former strongman President Robert Mugabe, past elections were marred by brutal abductions and killings, and they often began with these same kinds of dangerous rumblings. But We The People says there may be less intuitive reasons for the rising volume of calls as well.
“We have to ask ourselves, are violent incidents growing or are people just feeling emboldened to report more?” says Rumbi Zinyemba, a researcher with We The People. “We really don’t know.”
It’s the kind of contradiction that’s everywhere in Zimbabwe in the lead-up to the polls next week, the first in the country’s history without Mr. Mugabe on the ballot.
On the one hand, many Zimbabweans say the country has become dramatically more open in the eight months since Mugabe was deposed in a bloodless coup. People complain freely about the new president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, in markets and shared mini-buses and the 12-hour queues to draw cash that snake around many banks here – criticism that would have been unthinkable in Mugabe’s time.
Meanwhile, opposition candidates, led by presidential challenger Nelson Chamisa of the Movement for Democratic Change Alliance (MDC), have campaigned widely, and mostly without intimidation. And Mr. Mnangagwa himself has called repeatedly for peace – a brisk 180 from Mugabe’s threats in past elections that his supporters would go to war if he lost the vote.
At the same time, there is still wide skepticism that anything approaching a fair election is possible. The ruling party, ZANU-PF (the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front) has a steely grip on the electoral body, which has drawn ire for an error-riddled voter roll with a 141-year-old voter, and a ballot that places Mnangagwa at the top of the page of 23 candidates, among other things. It has the support of the military – who helped Mnangagwa depose his former boss last year – and the state broadcaster. The station sometimes airs ruling party rallies in their tedious, hours-long glory, breaking only occasionally to show footage of the president opening a school or hospital. “Real change is here,” ads blare chirpily during the commercial breaks. “Vote Emmerson Mnangagwa for President.”
Nearly half of voters think that incorrect results will be announced, and that there will be violence, according to an opinion survey released in mid-July. On Tuesday, the United Nations called for peaceful elections amid increasing reports of intimidation.
“Right now, Mnangagwa is preaching peace, but the default, the factory setting for ZANU-PF, is violence,” says Dewa Mavhinga, the southern Africa director for Human Rights Watch. “So if they are pushed too much, the switch could be sudden and swift. The machinery of violence in Zimbabwe is still very much intact.”
An unfamiliar country
Still, after 37 years under the same leader, any election without him can feel like it is taking place on another planet.
On a recent morning in the upscale Borrowdale suburb of Harare, Phil Collins crooned from the speakers as Mnangagwa addressed a cheering crowd of white farmers. His predecessor authorized violent forced takeovers of many white-owned farms. But now, they turn out in shirts and hats with the president’s face plastered across them.
“If you were born here, you were born here, you are a citizen, you have the same documentation like everybody else,” said Mnangagwa. “There is no distinction.”
Meanwhile, in many rural constituencies once synonymous with election violence, opposition candidates have campaigned with brazen openness.
“Before, we campaigned in the dark so we wouldn’t be seen,” says Looney Nyalugwe, an MDC candidate for the local ward council in Murehwa, an area of rolling rural homesteads in the rocky hills about 60 miles outside Harare. “This time the worst that’s happened is that we can’t seem to stop our posters from getting torn down.”
On a recent morning, she and her small campaign team were hiking across the round huts and tiny farms that dot their constituency to visit potential voters. It was a mundane outing, replete with cooing at babies and complimenting people’s gardens.
Even five years ago, however, none of this ordinary politicking would have been possible here. In 2008, several supporters of her party were murdered in this area, and many others were violently intimidated into supporting ZANU-PF. At one house Ms. Nyalugwe visits on her door-to-door blitz, the residents recalled a brutal beating their son received that election year for supporting the opposition.
A few days after they visited him in the hospital, they were asleep in a small outbuilding of their house when they awoke to a wall of light outside. When they flung open the door, their house was on fire. Someone had locked it from the outside, hoping to kill them.
Violence colored the election in 2013, too.
“So people are still afraid sometimes to express their views in this area,” Nyalugwe says. “But this time around, I feel even some ZANU-PF supporters are willing to listen to something new.”
Looking back, and ahead
For Nyalugwe, like many Zimbabweans, her relationship to the ruling party is tangled up in history – both her own and the country’s – in complicated ways.
Decades ago, as a teenager, she joined the other women in her village to covertly prepare huge vats of goat meat and sticky sadza – maize meal – to take to the guerrillas hiding in the hills and forests nearby as they fought white minority rule.
When the chimurenga – or revolutionary struggle – ended with independence in 1980, those who had fought the war became the new country’s rulers. And ZANU-PF’s bookishly charming leader, Robert Mugabe, became the first prime minister.
“But then we waited a long time for development that never came,” she says.
Still, many Zimbabweans say ZANU-PF’s history as the party of liberation is a debt that’s hard to shake.
“At times it’s been hard to keep supporting this party, especially as the economy has gotten bad,” says Lovemore Kayiti, a road-maintenance worker who attended a recent ZANU-PF rally in the fishing town of Norton. “But at the end of the day we look back to before independence and how life was then, and so even though there are not jobs, we think to ourselves – this is the party that brought us this far.”
Plus, many supporters say, that party has reinvented itself since Mugabe’s ousting. It has a new face now. Quite literally.
The crowd milling around Norton that day were, almost to a person, wearing T-shirts sporting Mnangagwa’s warm, gap-toothed smile. The speakers who stood to address the crowd all sported blazers and dresses fashioned from fabric checkered with the president’s face.
“The previous leadership treated the people here badly at times,” said Dexter Nduna, the provincial chair of ZANU-PF. “But we’ve had enough. Our new leadership is ready to return Zimbabwe to its people.”
Source: The Christian Science Monitor
#ZimElections2018: 10 Facts and figures
On Monday, July 30, Zimbabweans head to the polls to choose their next government and this is no regular election, voters will not just elect their next president but also vote in a raft of legislative and local elections.
For the first time since white minority rule ended in 1980, Zimbabweans will not have the option of voting for Robert Mugabe when choosing a new President.
The front-runners in the presidential race are the 75 year old incumbent President Emmerson Mnangagwa of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), and Movement for Democratic Change Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa, a 40-year-old lawyer and pastor who took over leadership of his party after its founder, Morgan Tsvangirai, died in February.
Both parties have pledged to revive mining, agriculture and manufacturing, ensure there is macro-economic stability and fiscal discipline, bring debt under control and modernize governance in Zimbabwe.
10 things you should know about the Zimbabwe election
1. Observers from the international community will be allowed to scrutinise the election for the first time since 2002. President Emmerson Mnangagwa has invited several observers from international and African countries in an effort to restore transparency and credibility to the election process.
2. About 5.5 million Zimbabweans have registered to vote of which two hundred thousand are new voters, according to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC).
3. The ZEC has set up a total of 10,985 polling stations across the country’s 1,958 wards.
4. Altogether 23 candidates will contest the presidential election. Fifty-five parties are also contesting the parliamentary election, the biggest number by far in Zimbabwe's post-colonial history.
5. The presidential term is five years and the president is elected by a simple majority. A second round of voting takes place if no candidate receives a majority in the first round.
6. Out of the 23 candidates, 4 women are part of the presidential race; Doctor Joice Mujuru, Doctor Thokozani Khupe, Violet Mariyacha and Melbah Dzapasi will be taking on the men in the elections.
7. The presidential election outcome would be announced within five days according to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC). If no candidate gains the required majority to be declared a winner, the elections goes into a second round with the two leading candidates contesting each other
8. ZEC has announced that in the event of a second round, voters will be back at the polls to choose their new leader on the 8th of September 2018.
9. An investigation by a team of experts found more than 250 000 errors or so-called "ghost voters" on the voter’s roll. The ZEC has denied these allegations and said a new finger print ID system will catch duplicate voters
10. The results for the last elections are as follows:
Robert Mugabe (Zanu-PF) - 2,110,434
Morgan Tsvangirai (MDC-T) - 1,172,349
Welshman Ncube (MDC) - 92,637
Dumiso Dabengwa (Zimbabwe African People's Union) - 25,416
Munodei Kisinoti Mukwazhe (Zimbabwe Development Party) - 9,931
What to Expect From Zimbabwe's First Vote Post-Mugabe
Will the election be free and fair?
Not according to the opposition. It says controls over the ballot papers are inadequate, dead and underage people are included on the voters’ roll, and the electoral commission is biased in favour of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front.
Who’s likely to win?
Mnangagwa probably has the advantage. Even though there have been reports of intimidation and coercion, and speculations that the state media is biased towards the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF).
What are your expectations? The African Elections Project will be covering the elections online especially on Twitter. Join the conversation!
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