Zimbabwe General election 2018

27 July 2018 from Jussa Kudherezera – Workers International Leagues (Harare)

General elections are scheduled to be held in Zimbabwe this coming Monday on 30 July 2018 to elect the President and members of both houses of Parliament .

The likelihood of the elections taking place were called into doubt following the 2017 coup . On 22 November 2017, a ZANU-PF spokesman said that Emmerson Mnangagwa would serve out the remainder of Robert Mugabe’s term before the elections due to be held during or before September 2018.

On 20 March 2018, Mnangagwa said he was looking forward to holding elections in July 2018.

On 18 January 2018, President of Zimbabwe Mnangagwa invited the EU, UN and the Commonwealth to send missions to Zimbabwe in order to monitor the elections.

 

 

Electoral system:

The President of Zimbabwe is elected using the two-round system.

The 270 members of the House of Assembly consist of 210 members elected in single-member constituencies and 60 women elected by proportional representation in ten six-seat constituencies based on the country’s provinces. Voters cast a single vote, which is counted for both forms of election.

The 80 members of the Senate include 60 members elected from ten six-member constituencies (also based on the provinces) by proportional representation using party lists; the lists must have a woman at the top and alternate between men and women. The other 20 seats include two reserved for people with disabilities and 18 for traditional chiefs.

According to the Constitution of Zimbabwe, the elections are required to be held before the official expiry date of the current parliamentary term, which is due to end on 21 August 2018.

Presidential candidates:

In 2015, long-term President Robert Mugabe announced that he would run for another term in 2018, and was adopted as the ZANU–PF candidate despite the fact that he would have been 94 at the time of the elections. Following the events of a military coup d’état in November 2017 and his deposition as leader of ZANU-PF, Mugabe resigned amidst parliamentary impeachment hearings on 21 November 2017. His successor Emmerson Mnangagwa was chosen as the ZANU–PF candidate shortly after taking office.

It was unknown whether Morgan Tsvangirai, the long-time Zimbabwe opposition leader would have run in the elections following an announcement on the 6 February 2018 which stated that Tsvangirai was critically ill and an MDC party source said “we should brace for the worst”. Tsvangirai subsequently died on 14 February. Nelson Chamisa replaced Tsvangirai as the MDC Alliance candidate. The MDC Alliance is an electoral bloc formed between 7 political parties in Zimbabwe on August 06, 2017. Most of the member parties are splinters from original Movement for Democratic Change and each other.

On 20 October 2017, the Coalition of Democrats or CODE, a group formed by nine political parties, nominated the leader of the Renewal Democrats of Zimbabwe, Elton Mangoma to be their presidential candidate in the election.

Joice Mujuru , previously the Vice President of ZANU-PF before being ousted from the party in 2014, also registered her candidacy. Former Deputy Prime Minister Thokozani Khuphe, who leads a breakaway faction of the MDC after falling out with Nelson Chamisa, is also a candidate.

In total 23 candidates will stand for election.

Conduct:
The credibility of the elections has been questioned by both Zimbabwe citizens, and the international community. The opposition party have claimed that people aged 141 are registered to vote, and in one instance a single address had over 100 registered voters. Academic Tony Reeler has argued people should boycott the poll, otherwise they would legitimise the 2017 Zimbabwean coup d’état.

Opposition leader Nelson Chamisa , has indicated that his party will participate in the election, but has requested the intervention of the
Southern African Development Community and African Union.

The Zimbabwe Republic Police have been accused of requiring officers to cast postal ballots in front of their supervisors, which is contrary to electoral law, which requires them to be a secret ballot.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has removed ghost voters and duplicate voters.