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Mukachana Hanyani
Zimbabwe held peaceful harmonised general elections on August 23 and 24 where the ZANU PF presidential election candidate, President-elect Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, was re-elected for his second term in office, after beating Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) candidate Nelson Chamisa and nine other presidential aspirants.
President-elect Mnangagwa won the presidential election race with 2 350 711 votes which translates to 52.6 percent of the valid votes cast, with Chamisa getting 1 967 343 votes or 44 percent of the vote.
Prior to the elections day, President-elect Mnangagwa, who used every campaign meeting and public event to preach peace throughout the country, invited observers to come and observe the elections.
He said that Zimbabwe had nothing to hide and those who wished to come and observe elections were free to do so.
President Mnangagwa`s gesture to invite international and regional organisations as well as countries to come and observe elections was premised on the understanding that they were coming to observe election impartially without bias towards any contestant.
For that reason, the country invited 46 countries and 17 international organisations, among them; African bodies, all 15 Southern African Development Community (SADC) member States, international organisations, countries with formalised diplomatic relations and other countries in Europe, Caribbean and Asia as well as liberation movements.
All the invited organisations and countries were allowed to move freely and carry out their assignment without problems.
Government officials and most Zimbabweans expected the observers to do their work impartially.
They were supposed to show maturity and guard against coming up with statements that could trigger violence and disturb the peaceful environment which prevailed prior to the election day.
However, the SADC Election Observer Mission (SEOM) which people thought was the one to make sure peace and tranquillity is preserved in the country decided otherwise.
The SEOM was assigned by the SADC bloc, which is the one that, if any violence occurs in any member country, intervenes to ensure peace.
Many people, for that reason, expected the SEOM not to disrespect the mandate bestowed on it by the SADC bloc or betray the trust that Zimbabweans had in it to discharge its assignment impartially and professionally.
It, however, appears that SEOM head and Zambian opposition official, Dr Nevers Mumba, seemed to have other ideas.
He was openly biased in favour of Chamisa.
It is, therefore, unexpected that the SEOM preliminary report has become a subject of debate in the country as Mumba tossed impartiality through the window and shamelessly became the advocate of opposition political parties in the country.
He threw away his impartial election observer status and chose to become an activist and spokesman of local opposition parties.
Many Zimbabweans questioned Dr Mumba’s suitability when Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema appointed him to head the SEOM.
Hichilema is the current Chairman of the SADC Organ on Politics, Security and Defence.
Dr Mumba, who was supposed to concentrate more on observing elections, went on to question the fairness of the delimitation process that formed the basis of the creation of constituencies in the country.
He further questioned the impartiality of the judiciary when it ruled that presidential aspirant Saviour Kasukuwere was not eligible to contest as he was out of the country for more than 18 months.
Surprisingly, he did not comment on the same judiciary, when the Supreme Court squashed the High Court ruling that barred 12 CCC aspiring Members of Parliament (MPs) after they failed to present their nomination papers in time at the Nomination Court.
Dr Mumba failed to adhere to the Code of Conduct on the Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections.
For the benefit of the readers, the Code of Conduct on the Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Election, among other issues, enjoins observers to “comply with all national laws and regulations” and precludes observers from “any bias or preference in relation to national authorities, parties and candidates in contention in the election process.”
It is clear that Dr Mumba deviated from and contravened some of the provisions of the Code of Conduct.
He sought to align himself with the opposition political parties in the country especially the CCC.
The social media is awash with images of him in SEOM branded clothing sitting with Chamisa. This shows that the image was taken during his tenure as SEOM head thereby compromising his impartiality and integrity.
Dr Mumba’s attack on the judiciary and the delimitation report among other issues was not different from what the opposition political parties have been saying.
In fact, Dr Mumba`s report sounded like a copied and pasted document from that of opposition parties in the country.
There was nothing different from what the opposition parties have been saying. He dwelled more on the position on different issues which were not related to the election day.
Dr Mumba criticised the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) for allegedly not doing enough to cover CCC’s campaign meetings but never sought the public broadcaster’s side on the matter.
It turned out that Chamisa was invited by the ZBC for an interview but turned down the offer.
The former Zambian Deputy President also condemned the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) over a slew of charges but did approach the commission for a response as expected of an impartial observer mission.
Dr Mumba betrayed both the appointing authority and the host who expected him to come up with a balanced report.
The SEOM head attempted to abuse the mission to prop up Chamisa and the CCC given that they were woefully unprepared for the watershed poll.
Instead of coming up with an objective analysis of the situation in the country, they dwelt more on what had been said by the opposition parties in the country.
Dr Mumba’s report betrayed the West’s desperation to unseat ZANU PF using the elections.
The UK-based political and communications consultancy firm, SABI Strategies Group, boasts in the biographies of some of its management team members that it assisted Hichilema and the Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera to win the polls that got them into power.
Realising that President elect Mnangagwa, ZANU PF and Zimbabwe were a different kettle of fish, the West stupidly thought that it could take advantage of Zambia’s position as the chair of the SADC Troika to abuse SEOM to catapult Chamisa to State power by hook and crook.
There is nothing wrong with an adverse report if it is based on relevant facts on the ground. But it is grossly wrong to come up with a one-sided adverse report based on opposition’s hearsay.
The fact that Dr Mumba and his team did not verify the opposition’s claims before crafting their interim report is a betrayal of the SADC bloc that assigned them.
One fervently hopes that the SADC Panel of Elders which is coming to Zimbabwe at the invitation of Government will correct Dr Mumba’s shameful shenanigans and report to the world the correct position on the ground.
One hopes that the elders will expose any machination that Dr Mumba had up his and dispel Chamisa and company’s baseless claims of poll theft.
Online Reporter