Zimbabwe: President clings to power, opposition screams fraud

Zimbabweans voted relatively peacefully but without illusions on Wednesday, while the opposition denounced “fraud” and “obstacles” that marred the presidential and legislative elections.

“We are clearly dealing with disruptions leading to voter suppression, a classic case of fraud dating back to the Stone Age,” Nelson Chamisa, a 45-year-old lawyer and pastor, denounced to the press.

In Harare, the capital, an opposition stronghold, there was chaos at several offices that were slowly opening due to “logistical delays”. The president is due to announce later in the evening that polling will be extended by one day to allow another 6.6 million voters to cast their ballots. The Election Commission (ZEC) admitted that less than a quarter of offices in the capital were able to open at 7am as planned.

In Kampuzuma district, Linda Phiri, 53, who arrived at dawn, was in high spirits when the polls had not yet been cast in the afternoon. “I sleep there if I have to. I don’t go home,” he angrily told AFP. “We were told the ballots were being printed, it was a bad joke,” sighed Boaz, a 37-year-old nurse who did not want to be named. “They are trying to cheat,” said Crispin Marambagwanda, a 45-year-old unemployed man.

Vote against

As most polling stations closed and counting began, at least one in a deprived area of ​​Harare had begun voting, AFP found.

The opposition, united in the strongly established Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) in the cities, was counting on a protest vote anchored in growing discontent with a battered economy amid record unemployment and high inflation.

The election campaign has already been marked by indiscriminate repression of opposition parties and gross irregularities in electoral rolls. President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his Zanu-PF party appear determined to cling to power in the landlocked southern African nation since independence in 1980.

Fear of counting

Nelson Chamisa condemned the ruling party’s deliberate desire to “create confusion to cover their tracks”. Zanu-PF “is desperate, these are the last kicks of a dying horse. This is not a political party, this is a mafia,” said this thin man with a thin mustache at the end of the day. “We want peace, but there is a limit,” he added, warning that he would not allow a rerun of the 2018 elections he contested without winning.

Kwekwe (centre), the 80-year-old president, with hair dyed in the country’s colors and a scarf, casts his vote surrounded by supporters. “With my vote, I hope the town hall will give me a good job,” commented Freddy Gondow, an unemployed man in his forties. Results must be published within five days of polling.

The CCC hailed a “very strong turnout”. But his spokesman, Fatzai Mahere, reported ploys by Zanu-PF supporters – who came to some offices under the guise of exit polls – to sow fear and sway people to vote for power. “Food is scary,” he said. Fake posters were also distributed, but “citizens will not be fooled”.

Like the chips were down

Earlier in the day, government spokesman Nick Mangwana told AFP that “every Zimbabwean must accept the will of the people”. Like the chips were down. The President has relentlessly promised that fair elections will be held. But “ZANU-PF is unstoppable. Victory is sure,” he said again on Saturday.

After months of campaigning against the opposition, few believe in the chances of “young” Nelson Chamisa. Human Rights Watch predicted a “severely flawed electoral process”. Opposition as observers now fear fraud during vote counting. These concerns are “the fruit of an overflowing imagination,” AFP spoke to ZEC’s vice president Rodney Kiwa on Tuesday.

(AFP)Show comments