SA congratulates Zimbabwe and urges parties to resolve election disputes

SA and the US separately on Monday noted observers’ concerns with last week’s presidential and parliamentary elections in Zimbabwe and called for peace, after the opposition called the vote a fraud.

The elections commission declared incumbent President Emmerson Mnangagwa the winner late on Saturday, but analysts have widely questioned the credibility of the result. Mnangagwa’s main challenger, Nelson Chamisa of the opposition Citizens Coalition for Change party, indicated on Sunday that he was counting on the international community to apply pressure over the way the elections were conducted.

The presidency said the government had “taken note of the preliminary pronouncements by ... the African Union (AU) and the South African Development Community (Sadc) ... Observer Missions”, and urged all parties in Zimbabwe to work together.

“The Republic of South Africa congratulates the government and the people of the Republic of Zimbabwe for organising and holding the harmonised elections to elect the President, National Assembly and Local government representatives, which took place on 23 and 24 August 2023,” the statement said.

Sadc’s mission flagged voting delays, the banning of opposition rallies and biased state media coverage as concerns, while the head of the EU’s observer mission said on Friday the elections took place in a “climate of fear”.

The AU said the election was conducted in a “generally peaceful and transparent manner despite logistical challenges with the availability and distribution of local authority ballot papers in some areas”. It also noted some confrontations with the voters “which have the potential of undermining the peace and integrity of the … process”. Zimbabwe should open the review of the voters’ roll to political parties as a way of building confidence among the stakeholders, it said.

SA’s statement shows President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government is ready to help resolve the impasse between the Zimbabwean government and the opposition, foreign policy analyst Lwazi Somya said.

Somya, a senior researcher at think-tank the Southern Africa Liaison Office, said SA is likely to try to deal with the aftermath of the elections in a multilateral format such as regional bloc Sadc.

A US state department spokesperson said on Monday that the US noted “systemic bias” against Zimbabwe’s opposition in the pre-election period and strongly condemned the “intimidation and disruption of lawful election observers throughout the electoral period”.

The US was engaging with regional leaders to share its concerns, spokesperson Matthew Miller said.

Analysts said before the vote that the electoral playing field was heavily skewed in favour of Mnangagwa and the ruling Zanu-PF party, which has been in power for more than four decades.

Zanu-PF denies it had an unfair advantage, and Mnangagwa has encouraged those with complaints about the results to go to court. With Staff Writer

Reuters