By Nyasha Chimuka
On the 30th of July 2018, Zimbabweans went to polls to choose their next President post Mugabe who led Zimbabwe for the past 37 years. About 5,6 million registered to vote and 70% are reported to have cast their vote.
A report by COMESA Election Observer Mission preliminary reports stated that, “The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) was able to effectively conduct the elections despite some challenges, as well as allegations raised during the Pre-election Assessment Mission, that in our view largely emanated from mistrust and lack of confidence in the electoral process due to past experiences. The Mission observed a significant improvement in the current electoral process as compared to previous elections. In general, the election took place in an orderly, calm and peaceful environment”.
However, immediately after the elections, demonstrations erupted in Harare triggered by the delays on announcing results. The demonstrators marched to the Harare International Conference Centre (HICC) the venue for the ZEC command centre demanding the release of real results.
ZEC declared Emerson Mnangagwa the winner and the opposition took up arms and contested the elections results saying the results announced do not tally with their V11 and V23 forms.
The opposition leader of the MDC Alliance Advocate Nelson Chamisa addressing the media said, “we won the popular vote and we will defend it”.
A political analyst, and former minister in the Mugabe cabinet Professor Jonathan Moyo also joined the fight saying “you elected Nelson Chamisa, they cheated him and declared Emerson Mnangagwa the winner”.
The real question is who really won the 2018 Election? Is it Emerson Mnangagwa the already declared winner or Nelson Chamisa who claims to have been cheated.
The 2018 Harmonised Elections were supposed to pave way for Zimbabwe recovery prospects but now divided the nation. The Harare violence evidently shows how divided people are.
The big question is if the election were free and fair why did people protest against ZEC? Was it because they were disgruntled by ZANU PF’s win of two thirds majority seats in parliament?
William Shakespeare once said “we cannot all be masters nor all masters must be truly followed”. There is need for a clear-cut direction for the nation going forward.
South Africa’s Economic Freedom Fighter Leader Julius Malema said, “Chamisa must accept defeat which I think he should for the better of this country”.
Now, which way Zimbabwe post elections. There is a huge task to unite fellow Zimbabweans in a bid to tackle our socio-economic challenges such as dealing with corruption, cash crisis, unemployment, post-election atrocities and making investment friendly policies.
