2023 ‘most critical’ election ever in Zimbabwe’s history after 1980, political analysts

Image: Africa Business

Renowned political analyst Dr Pedzisai Ruhanya says the 2023 polls will be the most consequential election in Zimbabwe’s history after 1980’s independence poll.

Dr Ruhanya believes this forthcoming election will have far reaching implications in the country just like the 1980 polls.

Meanwhile, he says all forms of of electoral manipulation and chicanery must be resisted adding that this must be the duty of all citizens to make sure that the coming elections are free and fair in order to move Zimbabwe out of the political and economic quagmire.

According to Dr Ruhanya, the ruling party ZANU PF is in a tricky situation as shown from its internal polls held recently, which he says were chaotic.

“The party received complaints of gross voter malpractices from over 150 of the 210 constituencies across the country, raising fears that this could be Zanu PF’s worst run internal poll in recent years,” he says.

Apparently, following the general election in Kenya last year and Nigeria in February this year, the next most significant poll in Africa will be in Zimbabwe this year.

According to analysts stakes are high in the holding and outcome of this poll, particularly from Zimbabwe’s neighbours, especially South Africa, and in the broader Southern, Eastern and Central Africa.

As political watchers put it, Zimbabwe has always occupied a special emotional, as well as ethical space in the African collective psyche, from the brutal wars of liberation against Ian Smith’s racist regime, to a glorious decade following independence in 1980, to Robert Mugabe.

Who locked horns with the British government over land redistribution, to the virtual banishment of the country from all forms of official financial channels and its subsequent economic collapse, to the fall of Mugabe and the rise of Emmerson Mnangagwa.

In 2018, Mnangagwa won 50.3% to Nelson Chamisa’s 44.3% who was the then Movement for Democratic Change-Allince leader.

Zanu-PF won six of the country’s 10 provinces while four went to MDC-A. This was the closest that any opposition party had come to breaking the ruling party’s hold on power.

Chamisa refused to accept the presidential election results, saying it was rigged in Mnangagwa’s favour.

He went to contest the results in court and lost the case.

With Zimbabwe’s unyielding economy, amid rampant corruption, citizens more likely going to vote from their stomachs.

“The crucial battleground will be over who the voters are convinced will be able to deliver an economic upturn and stimulate the jobs the country’s youth is so desperate for.

“CCC claims the government is riddled with corruption and is not fit for purpose; the nation needs a fresh start under a new team.

“Both sides square up again in July or August and the stakes are high. The opposition has been accusing the government of using the police to harass its members and stopping its rallies.

“The police say that campaigners have to apply for licences a fortnight before a rally and that many of the rallies that were stopped were illegal gatherings,” writes, Anver Versi award-winning editor and journalist who is also editor of New African and African Banker magazines.

The future of opposition politics in Zimbabwe is also at stake, as one analyst put it.

“The future of opposition politics is also on the ballot. Since 2018, the main opposition movement has had to contend with state repression, internal splits and underfunding.

“In the intervening years it has failed to get large numbers of new voters onto the electoral register.

“If the ruling ZANU PF party pulls off the overwhelming election victory it is working towards, it is likely that the opposition will be further saddled with division and disillusionment, posing an existential threat to the kind of vibrant opposition politics led by the Movement for Democratic Change in the past two decades.

“And with no strong opposition to challenge and keep a check on ZANU PF, the danger is authoritarian rule will be solidified,” writes Miles Tendi, associate professor of politics at the University of Oxford.

Zwnews