Free and Fair Credible Elections". This simple sentence has a bigger meaning for the future of Zimbabwe these next 5 years. A "FREE" 2018 election 2018 was the major test meant to get Zimbabwe back in the International Community. After all if you on the USA, UK and EU sanctions you not really part of the international community. You do not get foreign direct investment from the world bank and IMF (International Monetary fund). Secondly, no investor is going to invest all its money in a country which is under a sanctions list. That is the scenario the President of Zimbabwe Emmerson Mnangagwa was facing when he took over as president of Zimbabwe last year in November following the resignation of longtime dictator Robert Mugabe.Any person who thought that Mnangagwa would turn around the economy in 10 months since he took office is clearly in Alice and wonderland.Sanctions from the USA and EU means you are in big trouble.Just ask countries like Venezuela and North Korea.Turkey right now is already feeling the effects of the sanctions. Holding free elections without the violence experienced in previous elections was how Mnangagwa could achieve this. Which begs the question did he achieve this post 30th July Election?
The EU, USA and other international observers were invited and in truth out of all the elections since the turn of the century in Zimbabwe, this was the most peaceful pre elections political environment.There was no soldiers beating people up and forcing them to vote in the elections.The chiefs who were in the past accused of forcing rural residents to vote for Zanu PF were not involved and according to the EU “The elections were competitive, the campaign was largely peaceful and, overall, political freedoms during the campaign, including freedom of movement, assembly and speech, were respected”. It appears the international observers mainly the EU was happy with this pre elections political environment and this was achieved.
The second issue would be if the elections were “FAIR”? The EU stated in its preliminary statement that "the misuse of state resources, instances of coercion and intimidation, partisan behaviour by traditional leaders and overt bias in state media, all in favour of the ruling party, meant that a truly level playing field was not achieved, which negatively impacted on the democratic character of the electoral environment”. The list of requirements by the west was if playing field would be fair?When there is a football game there is certain list of requirements that should be fulfilled. A good pitch, atmosphere for the supporters , players and an impartial referee .
The polling stations were organised properly, the voter registration was smooth,the opposition parties held rallies freely and although there was issues with the voters roll, eventually all political parties consented to participate in the elections mainly the MDC. Moreover, as sovereign state Zimbabwe must and should conduct its own elections just like any country around the world. It is required by the new constitution created in 2013 and in which all Zimbabweans participated in when it came into force. The constitution requires that there should not be any outside organisation other than the ZEC (Zimbabwe Electoral Commission) that must conduct the elections.This meant that ZEC is supposed to be the referee and by the time voting ended on the 30th of July when the political parties participated this was confirmed.
In terms of media each political party has its own kind of media that is biased towards. It is a situation in most western countries that you have a newspaper that supports a certain political party. The MDC has Newsday and Zanu PF has the Herald. Just like in the UK there is the Daily-Mail for the Conservative party ,the Guardian for the Labour Party,and when it comes to TV coverage in the USA ,Fox news is for the Republicans and Democrats have CNN. Anyone in Zimbabwe is free to read any newspaper article they wish, be it on the Internet or the traditional normal newspaper. In urban areas internet connections is fast. One can go on youtube to any news channel on their subscribed youtube channel just like anyone from around the world. Most urban citizens have satellite tv channels were they can watch news channels from around the world especially African ones like SABC, CTGN Africa, and E News Africa. Those Channels have shown that they do have a lot of coverage of Zimbabwe news especially the political stories happening in Zimbabwe. In rural areas for the silent generation born (1925 till 1945 ) cohort now in their 70s and 80s that generation is not known to be active television users. Some because of lack of electricity or not interested. They rely on going to their preferred political party rallies, hearing from the younger generation both news and events happening in Zimbabwe. Radio is still an old communication they are used to for hearing the news and they do have access to different kinds of radio channels.
They also have access to all newspaper sources of information regarding politics for those who can read. For the baby boomers (1945-1967), Generation x (1967-1985) and Millennials (1985-2000) as explained above access to press information is unlimited for this Zimbabwe generation cohort. The argument that the press was biased towards one side does not hold water in this modern century of the internet. Zimbabwe is not in the stone age in terms of free media access. Facebook users amount to nearly 3 million users on a population that registered to vote (5 million of voting age adults) were one would bump into some form of news article regarding Zimbabwe elections. The role of the press in these elections appear to be have been fair as a result of this global modern day media. The old school propaganda tactics of biased information used in the 20th century during the cold war or world war 2 period by different governments on its citizens does not simply work. It failed with Brexit and it did not work in USA elections of 2016. People simply do not listen to one political point of view as there is now unlimited source of information even in developing country with the number illiterate people in Africa.
On the EU preliminary statement it was claimed there was “voter intimidation”. Considering how the past elections have been violent especially in 2002 and 2008, the 2018 elections compared to these elections appear to be peaceful.In the rural areas there was no report of any citizens been beaten, forced to go vote for any political party. They were International observers to monitor this, who the government confidently invited to observe the elections. When the voting ended on the 30th of July the joint observer states did not indicate that this was the case. So judging by the term “FAIR” its appears that the “FAIR” elections issue is satisfied, compared to previous elections during the Mugabe era. The 2018 elections appears to have been fair to a larger extent.
Which brings us to the final issue of "Credible" election. According to statistics this was the most observed and monitored elections in African history. The EU, AU, SADC, USA and other international observers from around the world were invited and present during the elections in Zimbabwe. It is not rocket science that these observers witnessed the voting and counting of the results. The chances of rigging an election is highly unlikely in this kind of situation.It has been 15 days since the elections were held and non of the international observers noted that the elections were rigged. The MDC has gone to court to dispute the results however it is most likely to save face after their defeat to try convince their voters that Zanu cheated in the elections but seeing the silence from the international observers it is highly unlikely the Zanu PF cheated. It is like a football manager who will complain that the referee was biased and the winner used dirty tactics when in fact he consented to playing the match.
Based on the invitation of the observers who monitored these elections and them not disputing the results 15 days after the election were held it appears all the three issues of free, fair and credible elections were satisfied to a larger extent. Academicwise the election was a pass.
The ball is now in the EU, USA and UK to decide if they want Zimbabwe to progress from its international isolation and rejoin the international community. The Americans seem to favour the MDC, the British appear to have Brexit hanging over their shoulder and soon they will need rich mineral former colony of their empire to cater for its post Brexit trade ambition. It would be interesting to see how these two allies come to a conclusion on how to re-engage Zimbabwe back in the international community.
Brexit will have an Impact on Zimbabwe and how the UK deals with the Emmerson Mnangagwa Administration