Who will be the Western puppet?
"Zimbabwe votes, eager to move on after Mugabe’s fall" by Norimitsu Onishi New York Times July 30, 2018
HARARE, Zimbabwe — Millions of Zimbabweans cast ballots Monday in a general election that many hope will earn the endorsement of Western governments and win economic assistance needed to repair decades of misrule under Robert Mugabe.
Long lines of enthusiastic voters formed at polling stations on the outskirts of Harare, the capital, before voting began, and officials said there were few reports of violence. The campaign was mostly peaceful, without the widespread clashes, intimidation, and fraud that took place under Mugabe’s 37-year rule.
Election observers from Europe and the United States noted some problems at polling stations, including long delays, but said it wasn’t yet clear whether they reflected a deliberate effort to manipulate the elections, the Associated Press reported.
The race for the top position — pitting President Emmerson Mnangagwa, against the main opposition leader, Nelson Chamisa — was considered too close to call. Both candidates campaigned on pledges to improve the economy, create jobs, and attract foreign investment.
After polls closed and vote-counting began, Mnangagwa appealed to Zimbabweans to be patient and wait for the country’s Electoral Commission to announce results.
Officials results are expected later this week. If no presidential candidate wins more than 50 percent of the votes, a runoff is expected to take place in early September.
More than 5.5 million people were registered to vote in the election, which offered more than 20 presidential candidates and nearly 130 political parties vying for parliamentary seats.
Turnout was high nationwide, according to the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, a private Zimbabwean organization that has deployed 6,500 observers across the country.
‘‘Today, Zimbabwe experienced a beautiful expression of freedom and democracy,’’ Mnangagwa tweeted. ‘‘No matter which way we voted, we are all brothers and sisters.’’
Earlier, however, Chamisa said on Twitter that voting delays in urban areas, where his support is strong, were a ‘‘deliberate attempt’’ to undermine his election bid.
The head of the European Union mission monitoring Zimbabwe’s elections said his team saw ‘‘huge differences’’ in the pace of voting at polling stations, the AP reported. Voters at one location waited less than an hour to cast their ballots while others at a nearby station waited more than half the day, Elmar Brok said. ‘‘In some cases, it works very smoothly,’’ Brok said. ‘‘But in others, we see that it’s totally disorganized and that people become angry, that people leave.’’
For Mnangagwa, 75, who rose to power after Mugabe was forced out in November, the vote presented an opportunity to gain legitimacy in the eyes of the people and the Western officials he has assiduously courted.
Sure looked like a coup by a faction of the party, as the pressure to resign became immense and impossible to ignore.
When it did happen, jubliant residents poured into the streets and as "Zimbabwe’s former president, Robert Mugabe, knew it was ‘‘the end of the road’’ days before he quit and appeared relieved when he signed his resignation letter after 37 years in power, a Catholic priest who mediated talks leading to his ouster said. Fidelis Mukonori, who has known Mugabe for decades, revealed some of the behind-the-scenes maneuvering at the frantic end of Mugabe’s rule, which began after the end of white minority rule in 1980 and unraveled under pressure from virtually all sectors of a society worn down by economic decline, government dysfunction, and restrictions on basic freedoms....."
I wonder what kind of deal he got, and if it was as good as the one negotiated by Jammeh.
So who is Emmerson Mnangagwa?
Though Mnangagwa served for decades as Mugabe’s enforcer, including orchestrating the rigging of previous elections, he has presented himself as a break from the past — a pragmatist eager to mend relations with the West and make Zimbabwe business friendly.
I swear, sometimes it's better the devil you know (you see who is embracing him?!).
At least the country is back to normal (well, not quite. It's still the same old crowd. So much for change).
For Chamisa, 40, the election was a chance to fulfill the goal of his predecessor, Morgan Tsvangirai, who died this year, to dislodge ZANU-PF, in power since liberation from white-minority rule in 1980.
Chamisa earned recognition for his tenure as minister of information, communication, and technology in a government of national unity between 2009 and 2013.
After Tsvangirai’s death, Chamisa outmaneuvered rivals to become head of the Movement for Democratic Change Alliance.
Western governments have made clear that a free and fair election was a precondition for the possible resumption of desperately sought loans from the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and other international creditors.
I expect the Zimbabweans will react much like the Egyptians and Haitians -- as they are left to ponder why nothing changed after an election. Welcome to the club.
Zimbabwe became a pariah in the eyes of Western nations in the early 2000s, after Mugabe championed the violent seizure of farms owned by the descendants of white settlers. Despite Mugabe’s attempts to cultivate China as an alternative source of assistance, Zimbabwe’s economy has continued to disintegrate in recent years.
Thus the need for an overthrow!
Today, Zimbabwe does not have its own currency. The lack of a physical supply of US dollars and a parallel so-called bond note has created a disorientating reality: Digital cash has become widespread in the capital while many in rural areas are resorting to barter.
In the months leading to the election, opposition parties were allowed to campaign in ZANU-PF’s rural strongholds and other areas where they had previously faced harassment and violence. Election observers said that intimidation of rural voters had greatly decreased, but observers and opposition parties also pointed out problems, especially with the integrity of the voter rolls. Government election officials refused to provide a full accounting of how the rolls were compiled, arguing that the law did not oblige them to do so.
That has raised suspicion among many voters who — given the history of vote-rigging by ZANU-PF and the central role played by Mnangagwa — assumed that fraud was taking place.
“They might capitalize on the gray areas of the electoral act to do shady things,” Tonderai Mapfumo, 23, said of the government’s handling of the voter rolls as he walked into a polling station at a school.
Still, an election season that compared favorably to previous ones has left many voters optimistic about Zimbabwe’s future.
That will quickly wear off.
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"Zimbabwe says election is clean; opposition is skeptical" by Christopher Torchia and Farai Mutsaka Associated Press July 31, 2018
HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe’s election took an uneasy turn Tuesday when the opposition alleged results were not posted outside one-fifth of polling stations as required by law, and the electoral commission said the impatient nation would have to wait longer to learn who will be its next president.
The government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, meanwhile, suggested the main opposition leader, Nelson Chamisa, and his supporters were inciting ‘‘violence’’ by declaring he had won Monday’s election even though only parliamentary returns have been announced.
‘‘Let me also warn such individuals and groups that no one is above the law,’’ Home Affairs Minister Obert Mpofu said. Security forces ‘‘will remain on high alert and continue to monitor the security situation in the country.’’
Zimbabweans desperately hope Monday’s peaceful vote will lift them out of economic and political stagnation after decades of Robert Mugabe’s rule, but the country is haunted by a history of electoral violence and manipulation that means trust is scarce, despite today’s freer environment.
While the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has five days from the end of voting to release the final tally, the national mood is growing anxious partly because unofficial results are already swirling on social media.
Dozens of opposition supporters even gathered at their headquarters in the capital, Harare, celebrating in the belief that they had won the presidential election based on results they said they collected from agents in the field. As they danced to music blasting from speakers set up on a truck, police with water cannon circulated in the area.
There was no confrontation, but even the possibility of it was an unnerving reminder of the tensions that pervade the southern African nation. Chamisa, a lawyer and pastor who leads the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party, [said] his own count shows that he won the election and that he’s ready to form the next government.
Chamisa’s party also said results have not been posted outside 21 percent of the country’s nearly 11,000 polling stations, raising concerns about possible vote-rigging. It suggested there was a deliberate effort to delay announcing the results, reflecting deep suspicion about the panel presiding over the election.
Priscilla Chigumba, a judge who heads the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, said she was confident there had been no ‘‘cheating’’ in the first election without Mugabe on the ballot. ‘‘The atmosphere has remained peaceful’’ and the commission has not received any major complaints about the election, she said.
The commission said it would delay releasing any results of the presidential race until all the votes are collated. If no presidential candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote, a runoff will be held Sept. 8.
Western election observers were in Zimbabwe, a sign of a freer political environment since the resignation of Mugabe, who declared he would not vote for the ruling party he long controlled and called Chamisa the only viable candidate.
Elmar Brok, head of the European Union monitoring mission, said Tuesday that his team noted some ‘‘inconsistencies’’ but that overall there was ‘‘progress’’ compared to past elections. The contenders in Zimbabwe’s vote must accept the results and ‘‘should look at the larger picture of success, a successful election for Zimbabwe,’’ he said......
The voters were ‘‘looking for change.’’
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Next Day Update:
"Army fires on opposition protesters as Zimbabwe waits for election results" by Christopher Torchia and Farai Mutsaka Associated Press August 02, 2018
HARARE, Zimbabwe — Soldiers and police fired live rounds, water cannons, and tear gas at furious protesters who threw rocks and burned vehicles Wednesday in Zimbabwe’s capital, dashing the optimism for an election that the country hoped would set it on a new course after decades of Robert Mugabe’s rule.
They are already missing Mugabe!!
Violence swept through central Harare after an official announcement that the ruling ZANU-PF party had won most of the seats in Parliament, an outcome that enraged opposition supporters, who say they have been cheated of victory.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission’s decision to delay announcing the results of the presidential race at least until Thursday — three days after the vote — seemed certain to bring more anger if President Emmerson Mnangagwa is declared the winner. Alternatively, many Zimbabweans wonder whether the ruling establishment, including the military, would accept a win for the main opposition leader, Nelson Chamisa.
Monday’s upbeat spectacle of millions of Zimbabweans voting peacefully was eclipsed 48 hours later by scenes of military vehicles speeding through debris-strewn streets and soldiers beating protesters who had blocked main roads and set bonfires. Some journalists also were attacked.
Gunfire was heard downtown throughout the afternoon, including near the ruling party’s headquarters, where protesters had gathered. Police fired tear gas.
Three people were killed, state broadcaster ZBC said.
Associated Press journalists saw two bodies and another person who had been shot in the leg. There were pools and trails of blood on the streets.
The riots surged up to the fence of the Rainbow Towers Hotel & and Conference Centre, where the electoral commission has been announcing results and many international election observers are staying. Inside the main gate, a water cannon on a police vehicle blasted protesters who hurled rocks.
Elisha Pfigu, 31, a street vendor who warily watched soldiers, said he was optimistic on election day for the country’s first vote without Mugabe, who ruled for nearly four decades, on the ballot. ‘‘Now it’s different. It’s totally different’’ he said. ‘‘People were happy on Monday. Now they are not happy.’’
Mnangagwa, a former deputy president who succeeded Mugabe after a military takeover in November, blamed the opposition for the violence and said it was ‘‘meant to disrupt the electoral process,’’ the state broadcaster reported.
United Nations deputy spokesman Farhan Haq appealed to Zimbabwe ‘‘to exercise restraint and reject any form of violence while awaiting resolution of the disputes and announcement of the election results.’’
International monitors gave their first assessments of the election, saying it was conducted in a relatively free environment and was a big improvement over past votes, though they noted problems.
And yet nothing has changed.
Should just install a strongman like Mugabe and go with that.
European Union observers said ‘‘a truly level playing field was not achieved’’ in the election, pointing out the ‘‘misuse of state resources, instances of coercion and intimidation, partisan behavior by traditional leaders, and overt bias in state media.’’
After a while you can see right through that!
Elmar Brok, head of the EU observer mission, said there were ‘‘many shortcomings’’ but it was unclear whether they influenced the results.
The opposition alleged irregularities, saying results were not posted outside one-fifth of polling stations, as required by law. Chamisa has said his own count shows he won the election, drawing government accusations of inciting violence.
‘‘The more the presidential vote is delayed, the more it calls into question the population’s confidence in the election process,’’ said former Liberian leader Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the lead observer of a US monitoring mission.
You mean like the U.S. election and the allegations of Russian interference?
Of course, the questions of the U.S. electoral process and stolen and rigged elections go back to the founding of the country, long before the Russians arrived on the scene.
While the electoral commission legally has five days from the end of the election to announce results, Western observer groups urged the release of the presidential results as soon as possible.
The European Union mission questioned why presidential votes were counted first but were being announced last.....
You can't do that in the West!
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Also see:
"Mnangagwa takes lead in Zimbabwe’s first election since Mugabe’s fall" by Jeffrey Moyo and Norimitsu Onishi New York Times August 02, 2018
HARARE, Zimbabwe — Emmerson Mnangagwa, who seized power from President Robert Mugabe in a coup last year after serving as his enforcer for decades, took a clear lead on Thursday in Zimbabwe’s disputed presidential election, suggesting that the nation’s dominant party was poised to continue its control of the government.
The results were announced late Thursday after a largely peaceful campaign that was marred by an outbreak of violence this week that claimed six lives in Harare, the capital.
The main opposition coalition, which had accused election officials of trying to rob it of victory in Monday’s voting, did not immediately respond to the partial results. The opposition’s response will influence greatly how the vote is assessed by Western election observers and governments, whose endorsement is necessary for the resumption of desperately needed economic assistance.
Nelson Chamisa, the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change Alliance, had raised expectations of victory, leading many supporters to believe that anything but a win would be fraud. On Saturday, two days before the vote, he stated that a victory by Mnangagwa would be “fiction” — even though a poll by Afrobarometer, a nonpartisan research organization, had reported Mnangagwa as slightly ahead.
When opposition supporters began protesting on Wednesday, Zimbabwe’s security forces responded with the brutality they have shown over the decades under Mugabe, apparently firing live ammunition to disperse protesters.
Supporters of the Movement for Democratic Change Alliance began holding angry protests on Wednesday after their leader, Chamisa, proclaimed victory and accused election officials of manipulating the results, without offering any evidence. In addition, a top aide, Tendai Biti, accused the ruling party in a news conference of plotting to assassinate him and Chamisa — again without any evidence.
Look who is talking!
Even though the governing party continued to use government resources like the state news media and the army to the advantage of its candidates — creating what the EU described as an “unlevel playing field” — Zimbabweans grew excited and optimistic about the vote. In one of the largest turnouts in the nation’s history, election officials said more than 75 percent of registered voters cast ballots.
“When I voted, I was so very excited thinking the elections will bring a difference,” said Jessie Mhambo, a street vendor selling cellphone cards in Westlea. “But now the same stress people had during Mugabe is back. There is no hope. We are stuck with our problems.”
The Zimbabwean people deserve better!!!!
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UPDATE:
"Zimbabwe inaugurates Mnangagwa after disputed vote" by Farai Mutsaka Associated Press August 26, 2018
HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe on Sunday inaugurated a president for the second time in nine months as the country once jubilant over the fall of longtime leader Robert Mugabe is now largely subdued by renewed harassment of the opposition and a bitterly disputed election.
The military-backed President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who again took the oath of office, faces the mammoth task of rebuilding a worsening economy and uniting a nation divided by a vote that many hoped would deliver change.
Mnangagwa, 75, who took power from his mentor Mugabe with the military’s help in November, said ‘‘my arms are outstretched’’ to main opposition leader Nelson Chamisa after the Constitutional Court on Friday rejected opposition claims of vote-rigging and upheld the president’s narrow July 30 victory. Some supporters of the president, however, carried a makeshift coffin bearing Chamisa’s name during Sunday’s ceremony.
‘‘In just nine months we’ve birthed a new Zimbabwe,’’ said Mnangagwa, who has promised democratic and economic reforms after Mugabe’s repressive 37-year rule.
He opened his speech by reading a letter from Mugabe, 94, whose firing of Mnangagwa sparked November’s dramatic events, offering congratulations and saying he could not attend because ‘‘I’m not well.’’
Mnangagwa told the crowd that ‘‘our democracy has indeed come of age’’ and he invited all political parties to unite and ‘‘develop the motherland.’’
Ruling party spokesman Paul Mangwana criticized Chamisa over the inauguration snub. ‘‘It is important for nation-building at this critical time,’’ Mangwana told the Associated Press. ‘‘The problem is the [Movement for Democratic Change party] did not give us a good opposition leader, they gave us a schoolboy, so he is playing schoolboy politics.’’
Upbeat supporters of the president and ruling ZANU-PF party filled the 60,000-seat National Sports Stadium in the capital, Harare, some catching buses and trucks in villages hundreds of kilometers away. The heads of state of South Africa, Congo, Rwanda, Zambia, and elsewhere attended.
The mood was less enthusiastic in downtown Harare, an opposition stronghold. ‘‘He is not my president, why should I go?’’ asked one resident.
Like the U.S.
The government badly needed a credible election to end its status as a global pariah, have international sanctions lifted — Mnangagwa himself remains under US sanctions — and open the door to investment. State-run media this month estimated Zimbabwe’s debt arrears at $5.6 billion.
Analysts say the president’s immediate tasks in his five-year term should include solving severe cash shortages and high unemployment that has forced thousands of people into the streets as vendors. Millions of others have fled the country over the years.
Mnangagwa in his speech said his government would work to transform the economy into a middle-income one by 2030 by modernizing infrastructure, fighting corruption, and putting ‘‘jobs, jobs, and more jobs’’ at the heart of his policies.
Final reports are pending from Western election observers invited for the first time in nearly two decades. They noted few issues on a peaceful election day but expressed concern about ‘‘excessive use of force’’ two days later, when six people were killed as the military swept into the capital to disperse protests.
On Saturday, the joint mission of the US-based International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute said Zimbabwe ‘‘has not yet demonstrated that it has established a tolerant, democratic culture that enables the conduct of elections in which parties are treated equitably and citizens can cast their vote freely.’’
Related:
"The International Republican Institute, which receives some funding from the State Department and the US Agency for International Development, has worked for decades in promoting democracy around the world..... The International Republican Institute is led by a board that includes six Republican senators, and one prominent Russia critic and Senate hopeful, Mitt Romney, who is running for a Utah seat this fall."
It's a CIA front meddling in elections!
Mnangagwa said he will soon appoint a commission of inquiry into the ‘‘isolated and unfortunate’’ violence and that it would make its findings public.
Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, the general behind the military operation against Mugabe, took a sharper tone in his own speech, saying ‘‘we regret’’ the violence but blaming it on ‘‘malcontents who abused the freedom of expression.’’ Chiwenga also pressed for the unconditional lifting of sanctions.
Giving the blessing before the oath of office, religious leader Andrew Wutawunashe appealed to President Trump and other leaders to lift sanctions, to cheers.
‘‘We are saying to you . . . we have at last found a man who can make our small nation a great nation,’’ he said. ‘‘Please help him.’’
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