JAUNDICED EYE
For a while there, Zimbabwe’s Zanu-PF government must have been more than a little worried. After 38 years in power it was risking it all on a roll of the dice — the unfettered will of the electorate.
For the first time in 16 years, there would be election observers from the European Union, the United States, and the Commonwealth, instead of only from the dependably one-eyed observers sent by the Southern African Development Community and the African Union.
This was a nail-biting gamble by Emmerson “Crocodile” Mnangagwa, the man who had deposed Robert Mugabe, the country’s president since independence in 1980. It was high stakes affair, effectively the first time in almost two decades that the results would not be printed before the ballot papers.
As it happens, it was not even close. Zanu-PF achieved a two-third parliamentary majority and while the presidential race result was tighter, with Mnangagwa taking 50.8% to 44.4%. Unlike the Morgan Tsvangirai in 2008, Chamisa couldn’t even force a second round.
eventually announced they are likely to show a similar trouncing of the main contender, the Movement for Democratic Change Alliance’s Nelson Chamisa.