Zimbabwe’s Electoral Commission on Saturday night declared Emmerson Mnangagwa, the country’s president since 2017, the winner of Wednesday and Thursday’s elections with 52.6% of the vote (2.3 million ballots) versus 44% of his rival (1.9 million). Nelson Chamisa. However, the European Union and Southern African Development Community (SADC) election observation missions denounced a “climate of fear” and “numerous irregularities” throughout the process. The opposition has rejected results it calls “fraud” which, if confirmed, would allow Mnangagwa to rule the country for another five years. Participation was 69%.
“We cannot accept these results,” said Promise Mkwananzi, a spokesman for the Citizens’ Coalition for Change (CCC), Chamisa’s party, “because they are wrong.” where the election process took place. In addition, the preliminary report of the SADC mission, composed of countries in the region, speaks of “delays in the opening of polling stations, incidents with billboards, a ban on opposition rallies and partial coverage by the public media”. CCC asserts that there was “intimidation of poll workers, missing ballots and ready-made results”.
Around 6.6 million Zimbabweans were called to the polls to choose between continuing authoritarian President Emmerson Mnangagwa, 80, or changing opposition leader Nelson Chamisa, a 45-year-old lawyer and evangelical pastor who was already in the In the elections In 2018 he was close to victory and scored better than his competitor in the last polls.
With the economy battered by hyperinflation despite significant mineral reserves, and amid increasing repression of the opposition in recent months, the general election, which includes parliamentary and local elections alongside the presidential election, was at odds between the two contenders.
The crocodile in the midst of corruption
Nicknamed ‘The Crocodile’, Emmerson Mnangagwa, the man who succeeded the once-all-powerful Robert Mugabe after the 2017 coup, was the favorite of millions of Zimbabweans and was eventually declared the winner. At the head of the ruling Zanu-PF party, which has been in power since the country’s independence and commands all the resources of the state, many citizens were convinced of his reelection for a second term. However, the opposition accuses him of not knowing how to deal with the high cost of living, the lack of petrol or the frequent power cuts and that his name appears in the major corruption cases that exist in the country.
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Mugabe’s old comrade-in-arms, a fierce and staunch guerrilla fighter for the country’s independence in the past, had raised hopes for change in much of the nation after the dictator’s fall. After his narrow election victory in 2018 with 51.4% of the vote, however, according to human rights organizations Mnangagwa cracked down on opposition protests and launched a witch hunt against all dissenting votes. In recent years, the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union have imposed severe sanctions on the authorities for abuses by the security forces, corruption and impunity in the judiciary.
The only candidate who could run against Emmerson Mnangagwa was Nelson Chamisa, who founded his own party, the Coalition of Citizens for Change, known as Triple C, in 2022 with the clear aim of attaining the presidency. In fact, a June poll by Elite Africa Research found the opposition leader had 48% voting intention, compared to 39% for his rival, similar results to January’s poll by British group SABI. giving Chamisa the win by 13 points.
The CCC candidate became involved in the opposition to the Mugabe regime from a young age, first as an active member of a student union and then in the ranks of the traditional opposition party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). In 12 years of militancy, he managed to rise from the leader of the youth section to spokesman, organizing secretary, vice-president and finally president of the party after the death of Morgan Tsvangirai in 2018. Very popular for his frontal denunciation Despite the repression of his opponents, he managed to gather more than 10,000 people in the last session of these elections.
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