Zimbabwe election: disputes as usual

 a new elected government, opposition yells fraud, counter story is that the USA/West is trying to manipulate the opposition, and the elephant in the room: What did China do behind the scenes?

I congratulate President Emmerson Mnangagwa on his re-election. I wish him and the people of Zimbabwe well for the upcoming term.

— Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 (@CyrilRamaphosa) August 28, 2023

🟡Dear @ZECzim,

You have consistently denied summoning polling officers to the command center for the signing of new V.11 forms. However, to expose your dishonesty, our team was deployed this afternoon to Nyika, where they witnessed the opening of ballot boxes in the absence of… pic.twitter.com/yGpCOhSX6s

— Citizens' Coalition for Change (@CCCZimbabwe) August 28, 2023

China's official news story LINK

and they say in other articles that China is willing to help the government, (but not so much the west who are suspicious and cautious about helping).

Background: Article from the Economist 12 22 about China building a surveillence state in Zimbabwe.

most of the article is behind a paywall, but here is how it starts:

Registering to vote in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second city, isn’t easy. The only registration centre is two bus journeys from the most populous suburbs. Nationwide there are just 71 voter-registration centres, or one for every 216,000 people (though some mobile ones are operating ahead of a general election next year). And this is not the only worry. Since 2018 Zimbabwe has collected fingerprints, photos, addresses and phone numbers to clean up the voters’ roll, which was reportedly full of “ghost voters”. This frightens many Zimbabweans, especially those belonging to the minority Ndebele ethnic group, much of which is concentrated near Bulawayo. In 1983 some 20,000 mostly Ndebele people were massacred by the army. Emmerson Mnangagwa, now the president, was head of the security services at the time. Now, people fear data collection “is a way to re-identify and target us,” says Rodwin Sibanda of the Habakkuk Trust, an ngo in Bulawayo.

China Projects blog has an article about Chinese projects in Zimbabwe: it's the mines, stupid.

China is Zimbabwe’s biggest foreign investor and kept the nation afloat amid Western sanctions, but is now estimated to control 90% of Zimbabwe’s mining industry (with the largest lithium reserves in Africa) and helps keep the economically disastrous Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) in government.

Over the years, Chinese interests have been a power behind the throne — once again, ZANU-PF triumphed in national elections last week; once again, amid accusations of rigging the system — with a hand in making and breaking its leaders.

Economic recovery tied to political rebirth

from the Times (SA)

EDITORIAL: PRESIDENT Kgalema Motlanthe will today chair a Southern African Development Community meeting aimed at formulating an economic recovery programme for Zimbabwe....

Given South Africa’s recent track record on human rights — barring the Dalai Lama from visiting — it would not be surprising if this delegation believes it can separate Zimbabwe’s economic recovery from its political rebirth.

But that would be a big mistake....

Zimbabwe has a power-sharing government, but this beast of compromise is a poor substitute for the real thing — a democratically elected government with parliamentary institutions that can function freely and fairly.

Without this airing of the cupboards of power, not all the money that is poured into Zimbabwe will find its way to rebuilding the economy and there can be little faith by international funders and donors that their money is not going to fund the avaricious cronies who drove Zimbabwe into the dirt while living the high life under Robert Mugabe....

AIDS money misused

From the NYTimes

JOHANNESBURG — The government of Zimbabwe, led by President Robert Mugabe, spent $7.3 million donated by an international organization to fight killer diseases on other things and has failed to honor requests to return the money, according to the organization’s inspector general....
Mr. Parsons said in an interview on Sunday that last year the Global Fund deposited $12.3 million in foreign currency into Zimbabwe’s Reserve Bank. He declined to speculate on how the $7.3 million it was seeking to be returned had been spent, except to say it was not on the intended purpose. Civic groups and opposition officials maintain that the Reserve Bank helps finance Mr. Mugabe’s patronage machine....

actually, this is small stealing next to the latest from Nigeria, where 41 million dollars was diverted to whatever, or here in the Philippines, where the presidential election three years ago was funded by diverting a couple million dollars from the fertilizer fund for poor farmers....

Vote rigging the article

From the UK Guardian...see video posted on link below:

....As he shot his clandestine film, Yuda was aware that it might never be seen in the outside world and that his reward could be nothing more lasting than an unmarked grave in the Zimbabwean bush. By the time he and his family were safely out of Zimbabwe yesterday, Yuda had a record of how the votes have been stolen and how those who have dared to oppose Mugabe fear daily for their lives.

The film shows how he and his colleagues at Harare Central prison had to fill in their postal ballots in front of a Mugabe supporter, how voters had to pretend to be illiterate so an official would fill in their ballots for them, and how terrified Zimbabweans were using felt tip pens to colour their fingers to pretend they had voted, lest they be murdered by Zanu-PF gangs. ...

Thousands more have been severely beaten, many too frightened to go to hospital for treatment.

"I had never seen that kind of violence before," said Yuda. "The impact has left a lot of orphans, it has left a lot of people displaced. You cannot expect that from your government. You expect that from a rebel group. How can a government that claimed to be democratically elected kill its people, murder its people, torture its people?....

Yuda did not realise then that he would be privy to the cynical manipulation of the electoral process. His testimony, made for Guardian Films and broadcast on guardian.co.uk and BBC Newsnight last night, shows how he and his prison colleagues had to fill in their ballots in front of Zanu PF supporters. "This was the most difficult moment of my life," he said of marking his cross beside the name of Mugabe. "This is a terrible moment."

They had all been told that they had to use postal ballots which they then had to fill in surrounded by prison officials who checked their electoral register serial numbers. Superintendent Shambira, a war veteran and Mugabe supporter, checked how he had vote...

-----

Part two article:

"I don't regret doing this, although it is a painful decision I have taken," he said. "We can live without the memories of seeing dead bodies in the prison, dead bodies in the street, dead bodies in my family.

"I've lost my uncle. My father was also beaten by Zanu-PF. I am praying to God: please God deal with Zanu-PF ruthlessly."

Mugabe has now been sworn in for a sixth term as Zimbabwe's president, a process which Tsvangirai described as "a complete joke". More than 130,000 voters spoiled their ballot papers in the election.

International pressure is mounting against Mugabe. It emerged yesterday that a US draft resolution to the UN will call for sanctions against Mugabe and demand that his government immediately begin talks with the MDC.

If adopted by the Security Council, the resolution would freeze the financial assets of Mugabe and 11 other Zimbabwean officials and ban them from travelling....

Mugabe: If I lose the poll we will go to war

from the UKGuardian:

A defiant President Robert Mugabe yesterday vowed he would 'go to war' if he lost the presidential run-off due to take place in less than two weeks.

Describing the opposition as 'traitors', he claimed Zimbabwe would never 'be lost' again.

.. "as long as I am alive and those who fought for the country are alive,' he said. 'We are prepared to fight for our country and to go to war for it.'

The threat was seen as an angry response to the pressure mounting on the government from other African leaders over the regime's harassment of the MDC leadership and supporters in the run up to the 27 June election.

Yesterday, MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai was arrested again and held for three hours as he tried to campaign in the countryside. There was also a stand-off between lawyers and police in Harare's high court before Tsvangirai's deputy, Tendai Biti, finally appeared before a judge.

....

With the MDC leadership under constant harassment, voters being beaten and killed and what amounts to a curfew in some MDC rural strongholds, the likelihood of the 27 June run-off taking place in any meaningful way seems remote.

Even if the 9,231 polling stations open, there is a shortage of officers prepared to risk monitoring them. The number of international observers the government intends to let in remains unclear. Although the first of the 400 monitors for the Southern African Development Community have arrived, they have yet to be accredited by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, whose own status is weakening - a memo from police chief Faustino Mazango, leaked to the Zimbabwean Independent newspaper, ordered his officers to take charge of the 'whole voting process'. Police had been, he said, 'too docile' during the March poll.

Rini Chipfunde, director of the leading independent monitoring group, the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, said the authorities were creating an environment in which only police, soldiers and ruling party officials would be present at polling stations in rural areas. 'People will be too terrified to vote,' she said. 'Others may be bussed in by the ruling party to cast their ballots under the watchful eye of police officers.'

Sources across Zimbabwe have reported an increasing number of roadblocks manned by militias and war veterans, effectively cutting people off and creating a dusk-to-dawn curfew.

James McGee, US ambassador in Harare, said 30,000 potential MDC voters had fled their constituencies. Mugabe has already ordered charities to stop work, leaving millions struggling to find food in the collapsed economy.

It hasn't begun, but Mugabe is Winning

from Zimbabwe today/First Post:

Those who fear for the survival of democracy in Zimbabwe will be gratified to know that Mugabe's Zanu-PF are so keen on the process of one-man, one-vote, they've started already. Yesterday thousands of police and associated uniformed thugs voted in the run-off presidential election set for June 27. And, amazingly, they all voted for Robert Mugabe....

The tone of this "vote" was set previously by Assistant Police Commissioner Nyakutsika, who told his men: "You will all do as you are told. Zanu-PF is the only party allowed to rule this country. We cannot surrender to puppets like Tsvangirai. We fought the whites, and we do not want them back here again."....

Just to boost figures, some civilians have also been appointed temporary police officers in order to cast their votes correctly. And similar procedures are said to be occurring within the army and other militia....

outthinking ZANU PF

Mutambara at African Executive

read the whole thing at above post:

Conclusion

In the history of every nation there comes a time when a generation has a unique opportunity to break with the past and define a new direction. Such a momentous occasion currently presents itself in our country. We need to seize the time and deliver change. This requires putting national interest before partisan, sectoral and personal interests. It demands that we apply our minds and outthink the regime. What Mugabe has lost in the electoral battle, he cannot legitimately regain in any election remotely described as free and fair. He is fatally and mortally wounded. The veil of invincibility has been pierced. On the 29th of March 2008 the people voted for change, and that democratic choice must be defended. Our independence will be meaningless without the sanctity and integrity of the one person one vote principle. Those that rule our country must do so with the consent of the governed.

If a run-off or re-run is illegally imposed upon us, the first order of business is challenging and exposing the illegitimacy of the basis of that proposition. More than ever, it becomes imperative for all the progressive and democratic forces in the country to close ranks in pursuit of the collective national interest. We must seek to establish a peaceful and secure environment for those illegitimate polls. In addition to observation SADC, the AU and the international community must be allowed to supervise these particular elections; before, during and after the voting process. The mandate of the external players must include the verification and announcement of the results. Yes, the regime has behaved worse than East Timor. We now need international supervision. Consequently, the notion of regional sovereignty and the doctrine of international responsibility to protect must now take precedence over Mugabe's narrow definition of national sovereignty. We have lost the right to manage our affairs alone internally. We need help.

However, Zimbabwean citizens will be the key drivers of this revolution. The power is in our hands. Let us stand up and be masters of our destiny. On this occasion of our Independence Day, let us rededicate ourselves to meaningful and total political and economic independence. The people should govern. The people must prosper.

We shall overcome.

Independence message by Arthur G.O. Mutambara, MDC co-President.

Mugabe's other face

from the African executive:

.....

following the tone orchestrated by the British, the European Union have made it their primary Africa policy to demonise President Mugabe as a corrupt, fascist and blood-thirsty tyrant whose only purpose in life has been to cling to power by rigging elections after elections while brutalising and starving his people to death, thanks to his firm grip on state institutions. Really?

On April 20, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) Chairman George Chiweshe belatedly announced that Mr. Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF part had lost control of parliament, winning 97 seats, compared with 109 for the combined opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and its smaller affiliates.

And on May 2, ZEC announced that MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai had won 47.9% of the vote share against President Robert Mugabe who got 43.2%.

The defeat by Zimbabwe opposition of the ruling Zanu-PF in both parliamentary and presidential elections raises many questions about President Mugabe’s [demonic] caricature, created by the New Labour British government.

How did the Opposition manage to win more votes than the ruling Zanu-PF if Mr. Mugabe is such a corrupt, fascist and blood-thirsty tyrant whose only purpose in life has been to cling to power by rigging elections, thanks to his firm grip on state institutions?

Is it possible that, somehow, Mr Mugabe deliberately [authorised] his own-appointed Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and other organs of state to [allow] the opposition MDC to win more votes?....

Three million Zim in SA, why not have them vote

I am getting emails from Zim democratic activists, and they are discussing if they could bus people home from South Africa to vote.

Imagine if you manage to transport 1 million Zimbos to Zim for election!! Only 1.3 million voted in the last election- don't you think it will make a big difference?

Ok let's bring down the number to 300,000 or even 100,000 people. Won't the number be big enough to get us some effect!

Ironically, Pinoys who work overseas can vote here, and of course as a US Citizen, my husband and I can vote in the US. (returning workers, known as Balikbayan, are considered dual citizens). So why can't Zim allow absentee ballots?

Mugabe to postpone runoff election

from AlJezeera

George Chiweshe, the chief of the electoral commission, confirmed on Sunday that by law a run-off should be held within 21 days, but he said the date is likely to be extended because government officials needed more time to prepare.

Tsvangirai said over the weekend that he would participate in the run-off but added that failure to hold the second round within the time limit risked rendering the election process illegitimate.

Justifying delay

Government officials say the electoral commission has up to a year to hold the second round.

"It was ambitious for the legislature to think 21 days would be enough," Chiwesh told the state run Sunday Mail newspaper.

He also said there are legal provisions to extend the period before the election is held.

"We want to make it clear we intend to hold the run-off at the earliest date because the period set by the legislature shows that it should be held as soon as possible."

The electoral body is waiting for the government to allocate funds to hold the poll, Chiweshe said.

Your Views

How will a second round of voting affect Zimbabwe? Send us your views

It took the commission more than a month to announce results from the disputed March 29 presidential election.

officials start verifying results

from the NYTimes:

A month after Zimbabwe’s disputed election, representatives of the presidential candidates finally met to begin verifying an outcome that has yet to be announced. Ministers in the government of President Robert Mugabe, left, have maintained for weeks that a runoff will be necessary with his chief rival, Morgan Tsvangirai. The verification process, which allows candidates to challenge what they think are erroneous or fraudulent tallies, could take days or longer.

The state-controlled newspaper, The Herald, reported that the police said the opposition party’s No. 2 official, Tendai Biti, was wanted for questioning for illegally claiming his party had won when the law requires that the electoral commission first declare the winner. ...

Zim works to verify election

from the BBC

Zimbabwe's Electoral Commission is due to start verifying the country's delayed presidential election results.

Representatives from both the governing Zanu-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change will oversee the collating process in Harare.

There is no indication when the result of March's election will be announced.

Meanwhile, the MDC downplayed official reports that Morgan Tsvangirai had defeated President Robert Mugabe while failing to secure an outright victory.

The opposition criticised what it said appeared to be a government leak of some results....

President Tsangirai

From AlJezeerah:

Mugabe party fails in recount.

"The news we're getting is that the election result of March 29 has been confirmed. What we hear is that nothing has changed in all the constituencies," Nelson Chamisa, the MDC spokesman, told the AFP news agency.

Earlier, the Reuters news agency reported that after 14 constituencies had been recounted it was impossible for Zanu-PF to regain its majority.

Mugabe's party fails to win back parliement in recount

From the LATimes



....The Zimbabwe Election Commission announced the results of 18 of 23 parliamentary seats whose vote tallies are being recounted, nearly a month after bitterly disputed elections appeared to give the opposition the edge over the 84-year-old president. The ruling ZANU-PF party needed to take back nine seats to regain control of parliament, but none of the 18 results were overturned....

Mugabe rival a "clear victor"

from the BBC:

Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was the "clear victor" of last month's poll, a top US envoy says....

Earlier, the leaders of the Anglican church called for international action to prevent violence in Zimbabwe reaching "horrific levels".

Meanwhile, a Chinese foreign ministry official said a ship carrying weapons to Zimbabwe might return to China.

'Accept result'

Independent Zimbabwean monitors say Mr Tsvangirai gained 49% of the vote - just short of the threshold for outright victory - but more than President Mugabe.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) says its leader gained 50.3% and so should be declared the winner....

---------------

and the BBC on recount:

The results of the first recounts in Zimbabwe's parliamentary elections are in, with the ruling and opposition parties retaining one seat each.

The ruling Zanu-PF party held its seat in Goromonzi West, while the opposition MDC held on to Zaka West, the Zimbabwe Election Commission said.

The MDC says the recounts are an attempt to rig the election and overturn its parliamentary majority....

Zim war kills ten people since elections

from ABC news Australia:

"Ten people have so far been killed in Zimbabwe since March 29. The situation in Zimbabwe is desperate," Tendai Biti, secretary general of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party, told reporters in Johannesburg.

Mr Biti said hundreds of homes had been burnt and 3,000 families been displaced in election-related violence. He also said that more than 400 MDC activists had been detained since the vote....

Opposition campaigners earlier said two people had been killed in violence linked to the elections and a lawyer for the MDC said on Sunday that at least 75 activists were currently in detention.

Several international human rights groups have accused the authorities of organised violence.

New York-based Human Rights Watch on Saturday said opposition supporters were being rounded up and tortured in special camps....

Electoral authorities have ordered a recount of ballots for both the parliamentary and the presidential votes in 23 out of 210 constituencies - most of them won by the MDC....

Zim headed into chaos

My article from BNN:

The announcement that Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe will not attend an emergency meeting of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in nearby Lusaka is bad news for all involved.

After years of destroying the economy and winning elections by a combination of bribes and threats (rural voters knew voting against Mugabe would mean they would be left off the list for receiving food aid), Mugabe held a sudden election for both the legislature and president, and lost.

Of course, officially Mugabe hasn’t lost: but the votes haven’t been counted and the numbers released officially, so there is a lot of suspicion that a lot of magical ballots are changing their votes between the precincts and Harare.

Mugabe was expected to win with the help of his rural voters.

His revolution was originally about land reform, ( a naive Jimmy Carter helped get Mugabe into power for this reason), and distribution of land has led to Mugabe’s rural support, even though the “land reform” resulted in many rural farm workers being thrown out of work when the large white farms were given to Mugabe’s cronies rather than local farmers.

But the IWPR website included this observation:

Turnout was disappointing; of the 5.9 million registered voters, only 2.4 million actually took part in the election.

Hmm. Where are all the voters?

Now, about one quarter of the population has fled to nearby countries to find work, but on the other hand, lots of “ghosts” were on the voter rolls. So what happened?

Either the voters stayed home in droves, or the ballots against Mugabe were “lost”.

Knowing that traditional Mashona culture is obedient to authority figures, and that a passive aggressive approach to life is the norm, I suspect that thousands merely “voted with their feet” and didn’t vote.

Mugabe’s ploy now is to insist the election was “close”, and that a reelection would have to take place.

Opponents in the MDC, who managed to collect vote count from individual precincts, claim to have won 51% of the votes, and are refusing calls for a reelection. Post election violence against the opposition and reports of intimidation from rural areas suggest Mugabe is planning to intimidate voters so they will vote correctly the next time.

All of this is not good news for Morgan Tsvangirai, who probably won the election.

Tsavngirai has been trying to get South Africa to get Mugabe to step down, and was behind Zambia’s call for the SADC meeting mentioned above.

So far, despite repeated attacks by police/army/greenbomber militia members, Zimbabwe has remained peaceful. So will a nationwide strike called for by the MDC lead to violence, or will it fail due to low turnout like many previous attempts to strike?

The key to all of this remains South Africa, whose president Mbeki has been an enabler of Mugabe’s policies, despite several million Zimbabwean refugees who have fled to his country. Mugabe as revolutionary icon still outweighs the destruction of a country.

If Jacob Zuma takes over as head of the government in South Africa, many Zimbabweans view him as one who will support pressuring Mugabe to allow peaceful change.

But what happens in the meanwhile is uncertain.

One minor point. A lot of publicity has been given to China’s human rights record with the start of the Olympics.

Well, South Africa is planning to hold the World cup in 2010, and the plan is to outsource some of the preliminary games to nearby countries.

A Zimbabwe in chaos next door is not the best way to attract visitors.

If you are into petitions, sign this one that asks the games be moved if South Africa continues to support Mugabe.

——–

Nancy Reyes is a retired physician living in the rural Philippines. She has a websites on civil rights and Zimbabwe at Makaipablog.

Mbeki to Mugabe: No reruns

From the Zimbabwean UK



SADC leaders are trying to persuade President Robert Mugabe not to insist on a re-run of the presidential elections. .....In what could be an unprecedented stance by the usually insipid SADC leaders, we can reveal that a prompt response on Friday by Mbeki - believed to have consulted his regional colleagues – indicated that they wanted the Zimbabwean political issue settled now.
The region cannot afford three more months of instability.
In order to implement his strategy, Mugabe would have to make another unilateral amendment to the Electoral Act, which currently requires a re-run to be done after 21 days from the day of polling.
Sources told The Zimbabwean on Sunday that Mbeki was under pressure from the international community to ensure the Zimbabwean issue was settled expeditiously. He and his SADC colleagues have been warned by the opposition in Zimbabwe that allowing Mugabe to delay his exit from power could drag the country into serious violence, negatively impacting on SA’s plans to host the 2010 soccer World Cup....

Opposition refects recount

From AlJezeerah


"...The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), led by Morgan Tsvangirai, says eight days is long enough for a proper count and the election commission should be ordered to make an offical announcement.

A high court in Harare has been asked to unlock the truth of Zimbabwe's elections, and a judge is about to hear an opposition call for the results finally to be released.

Mugabe's party demands recount

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — President Robert Mugabe's ruling party is demanding a vote recount and a further delay in announcing the results of Zimbabwe's presidential election, the state Sunday Mail newspaper reported, prompting outrage from the opposition party.

The Movement for Democratic Change — which claims its leader Morgan Tsvangirai won the March 29 presidential ballot outright — said it will not accept a recount.

"How do you have a vote recount for a result that has not been announced? That is ridiculous," said opposition spokesman Nelson Chamisa.

He accused the ruling ZANU-PF party of vote fraud, saying that police have told opposition leaders that the ruling party has been tampering with ballots since early last week.