Zimbabwe’s opposition leader claims victory amid declaration of ruling party as winner
By Daily Tab24. Updated: Aug 28, 2023. 8:49 am.
Emmerson Mnangagwa was declared the winner of the Zimbabwe’s presidential election by 52.6 percent of the ballots against 44 percent for Chamisa, who came second in the hotly contested election by ZEC, the country’s Electoral Commission. The election was between the 80 years old President and 45 years old Nelson, the main opposition.
The announcement yesterday by Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) that the ruling party has won the election was not accepted by the opposition leader who accused the Electoral Commission of hastily declaring the old gun winner. This is coming after a rather confusing celebration by Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) party members immediately after election cast.
Voting was extended to make up for the lost time, after voting was initially delayed, especially in the strongholds of the opposition. There was widely reported atmosphere of voters’ brutality and bullying. The voters that were targeted were mostly the opposition voters, while ruling party’s voters enjoyed a kind of harmony with Zimbabwe’s forces on duty.
“They stole your voice and vote but never your hope” Chamisa said on X, a public statement that is in harmony with the views of independent observers. Chamisa further accused ZEC of rushing to declare the ruling party’s candidate Emmerson the winner of the election. He opined ZEC had pre-arranged everything to favor the ruling party. He accused ZEC of not sorting the results and confirming result authentications.
Chamisa further rejected the result on the account the election was marred by irregularities which aided fraud, describing the whole exercise as “blatant and gigantic fraud”. Members of his party had anticipated fraud, saying they were aware the ruling party would rig the lection in their favour because they control everything with impunity.
The ruling party used Zimbabwean Police Force to create a tense atmosphere in the build up to the election, by arresting independent and international observers. The arrest was viewed as a pointer to the intention of rigging. Other observers allowed access to observe the election were those arranged by the government or who are on the side of the ruling party.
“This is a system of election rigging and they have gained massive experience in the business of election rigging. They set up observers and call them independent observers. They pay them sufficiently and finance their operations. They do this behind the scene and they would later use the account of their induced observers to justify their fraudulent victory” opposition party leader told Daily Tab24 when contacted on phone.
Emmerson is focused on celebrating his victory, as video clips of him dancing with his supporters circulated online. Speaking on the outcome of the election, the President who was declared winner for his second term said.
“I did not conduct these elections, I think those who feel the race was not run properly know where to go and complain. The elections were conducted transparently, fairly and in broad daylight”
African leaders control every facet of the government they control, and often have no problem with the judiciary which is also under their whims and caprices. Their first dart after rigging is always to encourage complainants to go to the court.
