Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa claimed victory on Saturday in an election marred by widespread allegations that the governing party, ZANU-PF, had committed fraud.
Mr Mnangagwa’s victory over his nearest competitor, Nelson Chamisa, after his first full term in office has strengthened the ZANU-PF’s grip on power in a country it has led since independence from Britain in 1980. For the past 20 years, Zimbabwe has suffered catastrophic consequences. economic policies that have led to rising prices, high unemployment, and a medical system that lacks basic medicines and equipment.
Mr Mnangagwa won 52.6 percent of the vote, compared to 44 percent for Mr Chamisa, according to Zimbabwe’s Electoral Commission, which is responsible for the conduct of the election and faces scathing criticism for showing bias in favor of ZANU-PF.
Mr Chamisa’s party, Citizens Coalition for Change, was quick to denounce the results and vowed to question them.
“We reject any result hastily compiled without proper verification,” Promise Mkwananzi, the party’s spokesman, wrote on Twitter shortly after the results were announced. “We will not yield to the victory of the people!”
With the 80-year-old Mnangagwa in power for another five years, Zimbabwe is likely to continue to struggle to break its isolation from Western countries, which have demanded more democracy and respect for human rights in return for struggling assistance with $18 billion. in debt.
Zimbabwe, a South African nation of 16 million, has a history of electoral irregularities, and such tactics helped Robert Mugabe, a liberation leader turned autocrat, retain power for nearly four decades. Mr Mugabe was overthrown in a 2017 coup by Mr Mnangagwa and his allies. The following year, Mr Mnangagwa won a victory over Mr Chamisa in an election, winning just over 50 percent of the vote.
This year’s vote, held on Wednesday, was marred by chaotic delays of more than ten hours at some polling stations as the country’s electoral commission failed to deliver ballots on time. Thousands of voters camped out at polling stations overnight because of the delays, which have mainly affected urban areas, where Mr Chamisa and his party have the most support.
Zimbabwean police have expressed global condemnation for the arrest of dozens of members of one of the country’s most respected election watchdogs on election night, accusing them of sowing discord by announcing expected election results. The night after the raid, ZANU-PF officials presented their own election forecasts at a press conference, but that did not anger the police.
Before the results were announced, several independent foreign observer missions criticized the fairness and credibility of the elections. The European Union mission offered one of the most caustic criticisms, saying in a statement that the government has curtailed fundamental freedoms by passing repressive laws “and through acts of violence and intimidation, resulting in a climate of fear.”
While election day passed peacefully, “the election process fell short of many regional and international standards, including equality, universality and transparency,” the statement said.
Christopher Mutsvangwa, ZANU-PF’s spokesman, said the allegations of electoral fraud were “all nonsense”. The election mechanisms were foolproof, he said, with agents from each party allowed to observe the counting of votes and sign off the results in each district.
“We have shown the whole world that we practice democracy,” he said.
Before Wednesday’s vote, ZANU-PF used the state apparatus to shut down opposition rallies and try to force candidates out of the vote in court, analysts said. The ruling party has also used Forever Associates Zimbabwe, a pseudo-military organization run by people close to government intelligence, to intimidate voters in rural communities, said Bekezela Gumbo, a principal investigator at the Zimbabwe Democracy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank. . in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe’s electoral commission is packed with officials associated with ZANU-PF, Mr Gumbo said. Critics said the commission had failed to produce a final voter register and continued to adjust voting locations, potentially leading to confusion as voters turned up in the wrong places to cast their ballots.
The Election Commission blamed the court for delays in voting on Election Day, which delayed the printing of ballots. But critics noted that the delays were mostly in Harare and other urban areas that are opposition strongholds.
The commission invited all presidential candidates to observe the table on Saturday before the results were announced.
“If this isn’t a demonstration of transparency, then I probably don’t know the definition of this word,” said Rodney Kiwa, the commission’s vice chair.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Mirirai Moyo, a mother of three, had returned to her market stall in suburban Harare after failing to cast her vote in the morning. There were no ballots at her polling station, she said.
“I can’t go back because it’s late now,” she said. “It’s sad now. This is what ZANU-PF wanted because they knew there would be people like me who wouldn’t be able to stay late in the polling stations.”
Voters also woke up on Wednesday to fliers scattered across the streets of Harare and the southern city of Bulawayo falsely claiming that Chamisa’s party was urging people not to vote in an apparent attempt to quell opposition turnout.
Near some polling places, ZANU-PF set up tables where officials supposedly conducted exit polls. They asked voters for their personal information and who they voted for, and in some cases intimidated citizens before voting, according to multiple news reports and social media outlets.
Many hoped that a defeat for Mr Mnangagwa, a former guerrilla fighter in Zimbabwe’s struggle for independence from British colonial rule, would mark a clear break from the suffering under Mr Mugabe.
Under Mr. Mnangagwa’s supervision, obscenely high triple-digit inflation returned. An estimated 90 percent of the working population are employed in informal jobs, such as selling vegetables on the side of the road, while higher educated Zimbabweans are leaving the country in increasing numbers in search of economic opportunities.
Nearly six in 10 Zimbabweans believe corruption has worsened since Mr Mnangagwa came to power, and more than 70 percent say the country is moving in the wrong direction, according to Afrobarometer, an independent research firm that conducts surveys across Africa .
Supporters of the president and ZANU-PF argued that he had brought economic success to the country by luring investors, despite the barriers they said had been put up by the West. Zimbabwe has Africa’s largest reserves of lithium, a mineral critical to electric car batteries and other clean technologies. Chinese companies have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in lithium production in the country.
“President ED Mnangagwa is loved by many people for his drive for development,” said Nyasha Musavengana, wearing a green T-shirt with the president’s photo as she took part in a pre-election rally. Stone by stone, step by step, he is fixing things in Zimbabwe.”
While Mr. Mnangagwa has spoken of deeper engagement with the United States and Europe, he has also gleefully embraced Western nations’ rivals, particularly China and Russia. Just weeks after attending a business conference in Botswana hosted by the United States, Mr Mnangagwa was a favorite of a Russia-Africa summit in July where he delivered a speech expressing support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine . He also cheerful accepted Mr Putin’s gift: a helicopter.
Mr Chamisa, 45, presented a very different view. He has served as a Member of Parliament for the past 20 years, is a lawyer and pastor, and has expressed a desire to re-engage with the United States and Europe. He heads a new party, Citizens Coalition for Change, and told Zimbabweans he was offering a break from the corruption of recent years.
“I voted for CCC because I am tired of suffering,” said Maggie Sibanda, 70, after casting her vote near Bulawayo. “My children are in South Africa and they want to come home, but how can they do that when business is so bad?”
Tendai Marima contributed coverage from Bulawayo and Harare, and Jeffrey Moyo from Harare.