By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Presidency has congratulated the Zimbabwean government and its people for “organising and holding the harmonised elections”.
This comes despite the official opposition party in Zimbabwe, Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), rejecting the election results just as international observers were questioning them.
CCC opposition leader Nelson Chamisa on Sunday contested the official re-election of the 80-year-old Mnangagwa, who claimed victory in an election which international observers said fell short of democratic standards.
Mnangagwa won a second term with 52.6% of the ballots against 44% for his main challenger, 45-year-old Chamisa, according to official results announced late Saturday by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC).
In a statement, the South African Presidency said it is conscious that these elections took place under a “difficult economic environment due to the burdening sanctions which the people of Zimbabwe continue to unjustly endure.”
“South Africa has taken note of the preliminary pronouncements by the invited International Observers Missions including the African Union (AU), Southern African Development Community’s (SADC) and the South African Development Community (SEOM) Observer Missions.
The SADC, in its initial findings, stated that the elections were marred by restricted freedom of expression for opposition parties and voters, including prevalent intimidation by rogue military formations.
“The [observer] mission was informed that the rural vote may be compromised by alleged intimidation attributed to a group called Forever Associates Zimbabwe (FAZ), which is said to be a quasi-security intelligence organisation. The group was said to have been deployed to wards and around 36 000 villages,” reads the SADC’s report.
Our observers confirmed the existence of this group as its officials or agents were easily identifiable at some polling stations as they were dressed in regalia emblazoned with the FAZ name and were accredited local observers. These and other unidentified persons who were not polling officials were also observed taking down the voters’ names before they cast their votes. In some areas, voters were intimidated by the actions of these individuals.
The AU said the election was conducted in a “generally peaceful and transparent manner despite logistical challenges with the availability and distribution of local authority ballot papers in some areas”. It also noted some confrontations with the voters “which have the potential of undermining the peace and integrity of the … process”. Zimbabwe should open the review of the voters’ roll to political parties as a way of building confidence among the stakeholders, it said.
The number of total votes cast in the harmonised elections was 4,561,222 and the ZEC announced that there were more than 90,000 spoiled votes.