Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa has been declared the victor in that country’s second competitive election, though multiple reports of intimidation and fraud are calling the result of this week’s contest into doubt.
The potential impacts of a fraught election could mean lower turn out in the future and bigger challenges for a country already struggling with poverty, crushing debt, inflation, and a lack of access to education and nutrition.
Mnangagwa, the head of the ZANU-PF party, declared victory on Saturday night with just over 52 percent of the vote, posting on the platform X Sunday that he was, “Grateful for the trust you’ve placed in me through the election.” Opposition leader Nelson Chamisa, of the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) garnered only 44 percent and quickly alleged “blatant and gigantic fraud” in the elections, which were called two days ahead of schedule.
“The months and weeks leading up to the elections have been marred by widespread intimidation, arrests, and violence by the ZANU-PF against the CCC, as well as bans on opposition rallies,” according to a recent report from the advocacy organization Freedom House. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, the government body overseeing elections, refused accreditation to local election observers and those from the Southern Africa Human Rights Defenders Network, barred some international journalists from covering the elections, and deported four observers from Good Governance Africa sent to monitor conditions before the elections.
Prior to this week’s contest, Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court also barred presidential candidate Saviour Kasukuwere from running in the election, Voice of America reported in July. A lower court also dismissed 12 of the CCC’s parliamentary candidates, though the Supreme Court later reinstated them.
International observers at the African Union, Freedom House, the Carter Center, and elsewhere also noted incidents of intimidation against…
Read the full article here