Will Zimbabwe hold free, fair, credible elections?

The gathering was based on the recent Afrobarometer pre-election survey which found that most Zimbabweans had little faith the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) would conduct credible elections.

Only 47% of respondents believe the elections will be credible. 

Previous elections have been marred by violence and allegations of vote rigging.

In 2018, at least six people were killed during protests against election results that saw Zanu-PF win the vote under Emmerson Mnangagwa following the soft coup that ended Robert Mugabe’s 30-year rule.

Professor Annie Chikwanha, from the University of Johannesburg, presented on the prospects of a free, fair, and credible election in Zimbabwe

She said the country’s democracy ratings remained poor.

“The one thing that citizens have continuously cried against is the slow pace of aligning the legal electoral framework with the 2013 constitution.

“There have been some changes, and quite a lot of them cosmetic and some tangible changes, and of course some recent changes increasing the number of youth representations and women in local government institutions. But other than that, a lot of what was noted in the previous election observation reports have stayed on,” she said.

The Afrobarometer survey found more than 80% of Zimbabweans believed the loser of this year’s election should accept defeat.

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While fewer incidents of violence have been reported, at least one death of an opposition party member has been reported and the foiling of opposition party rallies and media censorship have also been flagged.

According to the ZEC there were more than 6 million Zimbabweans who registered to vote.

The University of South Africa’s Professor Kealeboga Maphunye said one of the weaknesses of the Zimbabwean electoral system was the exclusion of the diaspora.

“There are no provisions in the law for out-of-country registration of voters. Of course, ZEC has agreed that those diplomats in the different missions across the world will be allowed to vote, including the security officials that will be working on election day.  

“The ideal is to ensure that there’s a diaspora vote because in my view you don’t seize to become a Zimbabwean citizen when you’re out of the country and therefore become disenfranchised.”

His colleague Professor Evaristo Benyera said the continent was struggling with the management of succession politics.

“Because politics in Africa is predominantly a product of fear. We vote based on fear.”

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