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Battle lines have been drawn in Zimbabwe after the proclamation of July 30 as the election date.
But opposition parties, election support bodies and pro-democracy campaigners have raised the alarm about the Zanu-PF-run government’s reluctance to free up the process for a fair contest.
The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has called for a demonstration this Tuesday to protest the failure by President Emerson Mnangagwa’s government to ensure a free and fair election.
Mnangagwa proclaimed July 30 as the election date and set September 8 as the date for a presidential poll in the event there is no outright winner.
“Mnangagwa is controlling electoral administration. He is controlling the electoral field and the military, which is the decisive power bloc. I am shocked by the international community, which is embracing Mnangagwa, saying he is different from Robert Mugabe,” Pedzisai Ruhanya of the Zimbabwe Democracy Institute said on Friday.
He criticised the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), saying the electoral body was “captured and full of discredited charlatans” as 15% of its staff members are military personnel. Other issues raised ahead of the election include the release of the voters’ roll to political parties and ensuring fair coverage of all political parties in state media.
MDC head Nelson Chamisa said on Thursday: “I have dispatched my team to meet the ZEC to outline issues we want addressed. If they fail to address the issues we are going to go there [in protest] because we have the numbers and the crowds,” he said during a campaign rally in Mashonaland East.
“Even the soldiers and police know it. We will bring Harare to a standstill. We have told people that we now want to demonstrate.”
Voter registration for this year’s polls closed this week and the nominations court will sit on June 14 to receive the joint presidential, parliamentary and local authority candidates. According to the ZEC, there are slightly over 5.5 million Zimbabweans registered to vote.
Mnangagwa laughed off opposition parties’ concerns and pledged the poll would be free and fair. He said “the opposition parties might bark” but elections will be held in July.
“We want a free, fair, transparent and credible election. We want a violence-free election,” he said on Thursday.
The Election Resource Centre’s board chairman, Trust Maanda, has not joined the growing chorus of criticism about the election date.
He views the “proclamation as timely and constitutional” although “a lot of people in Harare will be disenfranchised because of inefficient administration” of the voter registration process.
“The environment is conducive for elections but there are pockets of intimidation,” said Maanda.
The ZEC dismissed allegations of bias. A ZEC commissioner, Daniel Chigaru, said on Thursday the electoral body had kick-started “all processes so that we have a successful election day”. He also dismissed complaints over the release of the voters’ roll to political parties.
“The voters’ roll will be released to political parties prior to the date of the nomination court. It’s free of charge for political parties,” he said on Thursday.
There has also been an uproar over satellite polling stations that ZEC says will reduce the number of people voting at a polling station to less than 1 000.
Concerns were raised that these additional polling sites could be points where ballot boxes will be stuffed with ghost votes to sway the result in Zanu-PF’s favour.
However, the ZEC insists there will be “satellite or sub polling stations” to accommodate excess people, saying “these are not stand-alone polling stations”.
But so much is being staked on the voters’ roll that it is one of the reasons that has pushed the opposition to call for mass demonstrations.
Tensions in Zimbabwe have been further stoked by a Constitutional Court ruling which prohibited Zimbabweans who live outside the country from voting. Maanda says the ruling “excludes other citizens from casting their votes”.
Political parties in Zimbabwe are now gearing up for the elections after intensifying campaign rallies. The National Patriotic Front linked to former Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe has started to unveil its parliamentary election candidates.
Zanu-PF is still battling to reunite the party after primary elections last month. It also expelled a provincial leader and this week recalled three MPs from Parliament, while Mnangagwa spoke about a plot to impeach him after the elections.
