Zimbabwe's Mnangagwa promises fair and open general election

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has announced that Zimbabwe will hold an internationally monitored general election July 30 – the first monitored election since 2002 and one that could prompt a reinstatement of financial aid by foreign lenders.

|
Philimon Bulawayo/Reuters
Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa addresses an election rally of his ruling ZANU-PF party in Mutare, Zimbabwe, on May 19, 2018. President Mnangagwa announced that a general election will be held July 30 – the first to be held after a November coup that ousted former President Robert Mugabe.

Zimbabwe will hold a general election on July 30, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said on Wednesday, a vote he has pledged will be free and fair with international monitoring after the ouster of 94-year-old strongman and former President Robert Mugabe.

Mr. Mnangagwa, who took power after the November military coup against Mr. Mugabe, counts on the election to bolster his legitimacy as he pursues a promised break with Mugabe's repressive policies while urging foreign investors to return to Zimbabwe.

Missing from the July ballot for the first time in 20 years will be Zimbabwe's foremost political gladiators, Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai, the longtime opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader who died of cancer in February.

Mnangagwa has invited the Commonwealth to monitor voting in Zimbabwe for the first time since 2002 when Harare was suspended from the group over accusations of rigged elections. He has applied for Zimbabwe to rejoin the Commonwealth. 

Should the election be certified by international monitors, it could be a key step to a resumption of financial aid by foreign lenders for the first time in two decades.

The vote is being cast as a fight between the old guard of Zimbabwe's 1970s independence war and a younger generation.

Mnangagwa's main challenger is 40-year-old Nelson Chamisa from the MDC, who has energized the party, drawing huge crowds at rallies in some of the ruling ZABU-PF party's rural redoubts.

Sixty percent of the 5.4 million voters on the new register are under 50 years old, according to official data.

Separately, the Constitutional Court dismissed an application by Zimbabweans living abroad to be allowed to vote. The court did not immediately give a reason.

In a brief statement in an official government gazette, Mnangagwa said that he had fixed July 30 "as the day of the election of the president, the election of members of the national assembly and election of councilors."

Prospective candidates will be registered on June 14.

A presidential run-off vote is set for Sept. 8 if no candidate gets the 50-plus-one percent mark required to win.

For the 75-year-old Mnangagwa, victory would accord him democratic legitimacy after taking power following the coup.

Nicknamed "Crocodile" for his secretive and insular demeanor, Mnangagwa goes into the election with the advantage of incumbency, allowing him access to state resources for his campaign.

Crucially, Mnangagwa enjoys the backing of the Army, which analysts say remains averse to a leader lacking a pedigree from the independence war against Britain.

"Though the election looks like it will go to the wire, the greater likelihood, based on cold-blooded analysis, is that experience, depth and state incumbency will triumph over youthfulness," said Eldred Masunungure, a professor of political science at the University of Zimbabwe.

Critics say Mnangagwa was Mugabe's most loyal acolyte and blame him for a government crackdown on rebels loyal to political rival Joshua Nkomo in the mid-1980s that rights groups say killed 20,000 civilians.

Mnangagwa has denied the charges and says political freedoms have improved under his short tenure and that he is repairing frosty relations with the West.

This story was reported by Reuters.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Zimbabwe's Mnangagwa promises fair and open general election
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/2018/0530/Zimbabwe-s-Mnangagwa-promises-fair-and-open-general-election
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe