By Tinotenda Afarasi
Zimbabwe is now in election mode, despite being several months away from a Presidential Proclamation that would indicate when the nation holds its harmonised elections next year.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has already hinted that the elections would most likely be held sometime in July or August 2023.
And as the countdown continues, President Mnangagwa has called for peace, adding that Zimbabwe will not tolerate undue foreign interference in its internal affairs.
In his address during the burial of national hero, Cde Highten Nkomo, in the first week of October, President Mnangagwa said every person has the mandate of ensuring peace.
“Let us all take a collective responsibility to ensure that we remain a peaceful and secure nation,” said the President.
“As our harmonised general elections beckon, we must honour those that sacrificed for our freedom by saying no to violence and no to undue foreign interference in our internal affairs.”
Recently, President Mnangagwa said Zimbabwe will invite the international community to observe the 2023 elections as the country has nothing to hide.
However, he said no observer mission, never mind how powerful it thinks it is, should “invite itself, or seek to impose its own timetable on us”.
“Everything will run according to national laws and African protocols will guide us. Even as we invite the international community, we firmly believe our elections are African and for Africa.
“Indeed, the forthcoming elections will be the Zimbabwean chapter of African democracy. The laws and protocol on which the polls will run are African.”
President Mnangagwa said he was convinced that Africa was well-equipped to mind its own elections and electoral processes; we have adequate national laws; Africa has developed adequate rules and electoral guidelines, whether as SADC, other sub-regional groupings, or as the AU,” he said.
“To that end, we will place greater store and value on expectations, views and judgments of Africa, our mother continent. It has the prime mandate to peer-review us.”
The President’s remarks come as some countries that sponsor some opposition parties in Zimbabwe are already claiming that the environment was not conducive for the country to hold peaceful polls.
These countries’ observer groups always criticise Zimbabwe’s elections, never mind how free and fair they would have been.
In the 2018 elections, all observer groupings indicated in their preliminary reports that the elections were free, fair and credible, but the moment they realised that their preferred candidate was now losing, they turned around and started claiming the elections were unfree and unfair.
Local political analysts have saluted President Mnangagwa’s view that Zimbabwe’s elections should be guided by Zimbabwean and African guidelines.
Political scientist Mr Previous Gurira said it does not make sense to value the views of countries that have imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe.
“I think the President was clear that Zimbabwe is in Africa, and should therefore be guided by regulations arising from fellow Africans, and those originated at home,” he said.
Another analyst, Mr Vincent Sibanda, said: “Zimbabwe should never take instructions from countries that are clearly against it. If you are an unfriendly State, you should not expect Zimbabwe to value your ideas.
“Harare has been isolated for two decades due to sanctions and sanctions imposers cannot be trusted to give a fair assessment of our elections.
“I also think that countries that are so keen to have the opposition win the elections, and those that are quick to announce results on social media before ZEC does so, should be barred outright from observing our polls to ensure stability.”
President Mnangagwa added that friendly countries and groupings from beyond the African continent, which Zimbabwe relates well with, will also be invited to observe the 2023 elections.
“These have been our all-weather partners in development; they also invite us to observe their elections and/ elective events; they thus deserve a special place in our plebiscitary processes.
“We commit to free, fair and transparent polls. We undertake and commit ourselves to running clean, transparent, free and fair elections,” said the President.
Since 2018, Zimbabwe has implemented a number of reforms to its electoral laws and practices.
President Mnangagwa has promised that the whole electoral regime and ethos will continue to be reviewed, in tandem with citizens’ expectations, and to align with best practices.
“Genuine reforms are always organic; they must issue from our own people, not from outsiders.
“No to political violence! No to violence will be tolerated, whether before, during or after elections.
Every citizen must feel safe and secure enough to cast his or her vote, in an environment of total peace, which must abide long after the plebiscite.
“No democracy, no development takes place under conditions of division, conflict or senseless contestation,” said President Mnangagwa.
Zimbabwe has embarked on massive infrastructure development targeting roads, airports, border posts, water sources and energy.
In the absence of financial support from global financial institutions due to sanctions, Zimbabwe is using internally generated funds to implement the developments under the mantra, “Nyika inovakwa nevene vayo/ Ilize lakhiwa ngabanikazi balo”.