Comment on this storyComment
NAIROBI — Zimbabwe’s opposition on Sunday accused the ruling party of “blatant and gigantic fraud” after authorities declared the incumbent president the winner of last week’s elections despite allegations of voter intimidation and a crackdown on government critics.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, whose members are elected by the President, announced late Saturday that President Emmerson Mnangagwa had won a second five-year term with more than 52 percent of the vote. According to the results of the commission, the opposition candidate Nelson Chamisa only achieved 44 percent. The elections were held on Wednesday and were extended to Thursday after some regions, including the capital Harare, failed to receive their ballots on time.
“They stole your voice and your vote, but never your hope. “It is a blatant and gigantic fraud,” Chamisa said wrote on Sunday on Xformerly known as Twitter.
Later at a press conference, Chamisa addressed the media and said Zimbabwe was suffering from a “vicious cycle of disputed elections” and accused Mnangagwa, who first came to power after a military takeover in 2017, of staging a “coup” against the vote .
“You are not the last Zimbabwean; You are not the only Zimbabwe,” Chamisa said, addressing Mnangagwa, the leader of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front or ZANU-PF. “We are all Zimbabweans, we all count. We all matter and we will make sure we have our point.”
But the opposition leader, who also ran for president in 2018, did not promise to officially contest the results. Under Zimbabwe’s constitution, candidates wishing to challenge the final count must petition the Constitutional Court within seven days of the Commission announcing a winner.
Instead, Chamisa, who heads the Citizens Coalition for Change party, said the party and its supporters have “over a million tools to achieve our goal.”
The controversial vote comes at a time when Zimbabwe in southern Africa is grappling with rising inflation and widespread corruption, due in part to decades of economic mismanagement under former President Robert Mugabe, who founded ZANU-PF.
Mugabe was in power for 37 years before the military ousted him in a coup and put Mnangagwa in power. The new leader vowed to tackle Zimbabwe’s dire economic problems – but both inflation and unemployment remain sky-high. And key figures in Mnangagwa’s circle have been implicated in high-level corruption cases.
Late last year, the United States imposed sanctions on four people, including Mnangagwa’s son, for corruption and undermining democracy in Zimbabwe.
“We call on the Zimbabwean government to take meaningful steps towards creating a peaceful, prosperous and politically dynamic Zimbabwe and to address the root causes of many of Zimbabwe’s ills: corrupt elites and their abuse of the country’s institutions for their personal gain,” Das shared Ministry of Finance in a statement announcing the sanctions.
Farai Mukupete, 58, is a Chamisa devotee and a member of the Zimbabwean diaspora in the UK. When reached by phone, he said he was distraught at what he described as a “stolen election.”
“He enriches himself and his family,” Mukupete said of Mnangagwa. “He is building an empire for himself and his family from the resources of this country.”
Mukupete said some Zimbabweans are beginning to view Mugabe more positively than the current president. “Even though they hated Mugabe in the last years of his rule, people are starting to say he is much better than Mnangagwa, despite all his flaws,” he said.
External observers, including the European Union, have criticized the Zimbabwean authorities for fomenting a “climate of fear” surrounding the election, including intimidating voters and arresting independent observers ahead of the elections.
“During the electoral process, fundamental freedoms were increasingly curtailed… creating a climate of fear,” the EU mission said in a statement on Friday. “The electoral process fell short of many regional and international standards, including equality, universality and transparency.”
Nkululeko Sibanda, a Harare campaigner at Chamisa, said the level of disorganization and violations he witnessed at polling stations was “shocking”. In a telephone interview from the capital, he said he spent most of the second election day arguing with election officials who said they didn’t even have enough ink to stamp the ballots, which is required for them to be valid.
“It’s incredible,” he said. “My hope is that ZANU-PF will come to their senses and realize that they cannot rule this country.”
On Sunday, Mnangagwa denied committing voter fraud to win the election. Speaking on the X platform, he said his win was “a testament to the power of unity and progress.”
“Together we will continue to build a better future for Zimbabwe,” he wrote.