Zimbabwe’s economic crises and political suffocation: How do the 2023 elections affect the democratic path?

Zimbabwean voters went to the polls on Wednesday, August 23, in a presidential election tainted by accusations, amid major economic crises facing the southern African country.

Despite the growing hopes for the possibility of changing the usual faces of the Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), which has dominated power since the country's independence in 1980, the situation continued as it is with the victory of incumbent President Emmerson Mnangagwa for a second term after obtaining 52.6% of the vote.

This is the second election since the army overthrew President Robert Mugabe after three decades in power (1987-2017).

Economic crisis and political suffocation

Since Zimbabwe gained its independence in 1980, the ruling ZANU-PF party has held onto power through repression, intimidation, and arrests, while the country’s currency is at the bottom of its global peers with a runaway inflation rate of 175.8%, according to CNN.

The local currency lost more than half of its value against the US dollar last June. Unemployment also worsened, and many citizens have relied on dollar remittances from their relatives abroad, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported.

Zimbabwe is experiencing a huge debt crisis that is preventing it from obtaining loans from international financial institutions. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund require free and fair elections before any serious talks on this issue.

Candidates

Before assuming the presidency of Zimbabwe in 2017, Mnangagwa held many positions throughout Mugabe's rule, most notably as the country's vice president.

Of the ten candidates Mnangagwa (80 years old) contested in this election, the most prominent was lawyer and pastor Nelson Chamisa (45 years old) of the Citizens Coalition for Change, who gained 44.03% of the vote. The 2018 elections saw Mnangagwa defeat Chamisa in a vote upheld by the Constitutional Court, despite accusations by the opposition of fraud.

UN Watch said, “The re-election of Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa was marred by vote suppression, arrest of observers, voter intimidation, threats of violence, harassment and coercion. The credibility of this election is in grave doubt.”

Ezra Magumba, an experienced journalist on southern African affairs, told Jusoor Post that despite what appeared to be a peaceful process, the Citizens' Coalition for Change reported that some polling stations failed to open as the official closing date approached.

“The main opposition party candidate, Nelson Chamisa, alleged voter suppression in some urban centers, as well as intimidation and bribery in many rural areas,” Magumba said.

“Most of the urban population, especially the youth, believe that it is time for change, so they stand with Chamisa. Intimidation and bribery mechanisms work in favor of the current president, Mnangagwa, especially if we know that the number of rural voters is much larger than urban ones,” he added.

Background

Magumba told Jusoor Post that Zimbabwe has never had a strong electoral register and voter list.

“In the late 1980s and early 1990s, these issues were raised to the point where the Registrar General allowed anyone to vote if they provided proof of nationality and residency,” he explained.

“In 1995, the government promised to create a new voting list, but the new register included the names of deceased persons. Not many people were able to register. Others were registered in the wrong constituency. In all, more than 40% of the names were wrong,” he added.

“I do not think that the current situation allows for major changes in the political scene. Despite this, the winds of change that have blown generations of young people around the world since the beginning of the second decade of the twenty-first century, and in Africa in particular, herald new perceptions and a new understanding against all those who stole the nascent African democracy emerging since the 1970s,” Magumba continued.