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Ranga Mtaire Group Political Editor
NOW that the elections are over, its time we take stock of the major take aways in the areas of organisational capacity, financial muscle, structures, political message, observers, ZEC, peace and media coverage.
Organisational forte
From the onset, it became clear that ZANU-PF was more prepared for the elections than any other political party. Besides utilising its grassroots structures, the governing party had a number of affiliates that were doing its bidding.
Its major star rallies, which were addressed by its presidential candidate were followed by a musical gala celebrating a luminary in the particular area the rally would hate taken place.
CCC, on the other hand, only had Nelson Chamisa as the only speaker at its rallies, leaving out other senior party leaders as invisible and failed to give a picture of a united organised entity.
The campaign turned into a one-man show whose underlining outlook was what Chamisa called “strategic ambiguity.” Even the numbers that attended his rallies pointed to a serious lack of grassroots mobilisation. The optics were bad for the CCC while for the ruling ZANU-PF party, the huge crowds projected a grand national party at work.
Financial Resources
Although the opposition CCC’s campaign was said to have been bankrolled by the Brenthurst Organisation, Open Society Initiative of Southern Africa (OSISA) and other such Western donors, nothing on the ground indicated that this was a party with a strong financial muscle.
Some CCC supporters could be seen scrambling for party regalia.
The scramble for party regalia was attributed to the opaqueness in which funds were being disbursed and the everything and the centralisation of everything around Chamisa.
ZANU-PF clearly showed it had an upper-hand mobilising resources for the elections. It secured enough party regalia and ensured that only those who attended were given the party paraphernalia. It also managed to feed its own supporters attending the rallies.
Structures
Much of the mobilisation for ZANU-PF was conducted by leadership in structures from the cell, ward, district to the provincial level including its own affiliates. It became much more easier for the party to pull together supporters.
Well before the elections, the party had conducted a cell audit exercise to ascertain its members forming the smallest unity of the party.
It has now become clear that CCC’s archiles heel was the absence of discernible structures. Only four people were visible — Chamisa, Fadzayi Mahere, Gift Ostalos Siziba and Amos Chibaya. It beam apparent as the election progressed that the opposition was struggling in mobilising people to attend its rallies.
The last straw was the Harare rally dubbed “Game Over” where Chamisa was boed by a section of supporters who chanted “Biti, Biti, Biti” — in disapproval of the manner in which the CCC leader had sidelined the former legislator.
Without structures, the CCC ended up relying on protest votes and not genuine members.
The election proved beyond doubt the importance of institutional structures in mobilising the support base. ZANU-PF held its primary elections, which rejuvenated its base.
It is the same structures- provincial, district, ward and cell levels that played critical roles in mobilising registration of voters, which became a key element in the actual voting. Structures are thus paramount in that they lessen the burden on individual leaders.
Campaign Message
In any political campaign, political parties need to come up with an effective compelling message that woos supporters and convince fence sitters that they have superior logic.
Effective campaign goes hand in hand with a coherent, persistent and consistent message that is to be deployed across all political campaign tools and methods of distribution.
Well before the elections, ZANU-PF already knew the political message it was going to run with. It was clear when the campaigns started that economic development through practical deliverables was to be their underlining message. In packaging that economic thrust, they came up with rallying catchphrases like “Nyika Inovakwa Nevene Vayo” and “Leaving No One and No Place Behind”.
What we learnt from this election is that it pays to have a political message that resonates with the electorate. Hate them or like them, ZANU-PF’s message of economic deliverables had a lingering effect on the electorate.
The party showed the electorate that it was problem solvers who were not geared to execute its pledges.
The same can not be said of the CCC with their strategic ambiguity. Even after coming up with a Manifesto, very few of the electorate remember what the political entity’s message was.
Calling for change for change’s sake became sort of a scratched record. There was lack of a coherent political message that resonated well with the electorate.
Rallies for Chamisa became platforms for saying mendacious things like promising his supporters that “he would call Biden” to remove sanctions in an instant. The CCC leader erroneously thought that he was so popular that he needed no political message to sell to the electorate.
Observers
A record 46 countries, 17 organisations and two prominent people were invited by the Government of Zimbabwe to observer the 2023 harmonised elections.
Surprisingly, most of the observers seemed to concentrate on areas outside the capital, Harare.
Many of the observers attested to the peace that prevailed during and after voting. Predictably, observers had different “takes” on the elections.
Of particular interest is the Commonwealth Observer Mission, which generally gave a thumbs up to Zimbabwe for the professionalism exhibited by polling officers and security agents.
The SADC observer team headed by Mr Nevers Mumba is worth citing for its perceived overreaching preliminary report, which authorities and other observers felt was tilted in favour of the opposition. Analysts pointed to the lack of balance or verification of allegations that were contained in the preliminary report.
The coming of SADC Elders in the post-election period minus Mr Mumba, is indicative of some consensus within the region that the preliminary report read like an agenda setting script.
Peace
The peace and tranquillity that existed before, during and after the elections was a measure of Zimbabwe’s tolerance and political maturity. All observer missions commended the peaceful environment prevailing in the country.
Prior and during campaigns, President Mnangagwa kept on hammering on the need for citizens to maintain peace and order and it appeared Zimbabweans took heed of his call.
Media
Many at times, the media rarely gets recognition for the sterling role it does in providing basic information to the electorate. Although there were clear parallels in the kind of content media house produced, the media performed exceptionally well in bringing out election stories to the voters.
There is a lot that mainstream media needs to do to catch up with online or social media platforms that appeared to have an upper hand in breaking news.
Despite having manpower on the ground, mainstream media could have done more in simplifying election related content timeously.
Also, when results started filtering through, many voters relied more on unregulated social media platforms as the mainstream was slow.
It was, however, commendable to note that no reports of media harassment were reported through out the election period. This speaks to the level of tolerance and understanding of media’s role from political parties.
ZEC (Zimbabwe Electoral Commission)
The commission was dogged by operational glitches when ballot papers took time to be delivered to some polling stations and voting had to be extended by a day. The extension allowed voters who had missed casting their ballot papers on the first day to do so on the second day.
The timeous release of results seemed to have atoned for the delays encountered during voting.
This was a plus for ZEC.
More work, however, needs to be done on the communication side. The commission needs to be proactive in its communication strategy.
In the modern era of information technology, ZEC needs to do better in utilising various platforms to timeously disseminate critical information or updates for the benefit of the electorate.
In general, the 2023 harmonised elections were one of the most peaceful elections ever held in Zimbabwe if not on the continent.
It was also one of the most watched and observed given the number of observers invited into the country.
Online Reporter
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