President’s victory: Observer missions do not run elections

Mukachana Hanyani

Some Zimbabweans are a surprising lot who make noise for no reason. They just make noise for the sake of it without checking the facts on the ground.

This is especially so for those who choose to ignore facts to enable them to satisfy their quest to badmouth their country in the mistaken and misplaced belief that they are fighting their political opponents.

Of late, social media, especially X (formerly known as Twitter), Facebook, TikTok and WhatsApp have been awash with reports that Zimbabwean elections were not free and fair.

This follows the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Election Observer Mission (SEOM), which concluded without consulting relevant stakeholders that the elections fell short of the SADC principles and guidelines on democratic elections.

Surprisingly, the same people are now calling for a rerun of elections as they are arguing that the SEOM report did not adjudge the elections as free and fair.

Some are even saying that they need a rerun as they claim that President Mnangagwa`s victory was rejected by CCC leader Nelson Chamisa who said elections were rigged.

This is despite the fact that he was quoted by the July 24 edition of the NewsDay confidently telling his party members in Dulibadzimu, Beitbridge, that President Mnangagwa could not “rig” elections this year as he had covered all possible loopholes.

Attendant to the demands for fresh polls have been the narrative that President Mnangagwa’s tenure and mandate were illegitimate.

This was based on the same poll rigging allegations.

The social media noise about the legitimacy question grew louder on Monday when the social media architects learnt that three heads of states attended the inauguration and swearing in of President Mnangagwa for his second term in office.

Some even went further to say that the inauguration of President Mnangagwa was snubbed by regional leaders who opted to attend a climate change summit in Kenya.

They claimed that the absence of the other 13 SADC leaders from the event was thumbs down for the President’s election and inauguration.

The presence of President Filipe Nyusi of Mozambique, President Cyril Matamela Ramaphosa of South Africa and President Felix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) at President Mnangagwa`s inauguration ceremony at the National Sports Stadium was received by mockery from some netizens who said that the ceremony was snubbed by other regional leaders as the election was allegedly contested and would result in a legitimacy crisis.

The number of heads of state who attend an inauguration is not an issue. It has nothing to do with endorsing the election process or the results thereof.

When President Tshisekedi was sworn in, in January 2019, the then President of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta was the only president who witnessed the ceremony, but no one said anything about the issue.

When the Prime Minister of Lesotho was inaugurated in October last year only three SADC Presidents namely President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, President Hichilema of Zambia and President Mokgweetsi Masisi of Botswana attended the ceremony.

Three SADC Presidents also attended President Hage Geingob of Namibia’s inauguration in March 2020.

There is, therefore, nothing out of this world with three heads of state attending President Mnangagwa’s inauguration.

When President Mnangagwa took the oath of office in August 2018, three heads of states from the DRC, Rwanda and South Africa, as well as former heads of states such as Ian Khama attended the event.

One wonders why people would waste time deliberating on President Mnangagwa’s inauguration and even speculating that regional leaders snubbed the event, yet it has been the norm for leaders not to attend such events when they are tied up with some state business somewhere.

They, however, ensure that they are represented at such ceremonies by their deputies or ministers of foreign affairs.

When the Nigerian President Bola Tinubu was inaugurated in May this year, President Mnangagwa was busy and he sent Vice President Constantino Chiwenga to represent him in Nigeria.

No one questioned this decision.

Similarly, no one should question regional leaders sending representatives to Harare on the day of President Mnangagwa’s inauguration.

Some Zimbabweans also raised a lot of unnecessary dust over the absence of the Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema at President Mnangagwa’s inauguration.

Their contention was that the presence of President Hichilema, the incumbent SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security chairman and the current SADC chairman, Angolan President Joao Lorenzo had an endorsing effect on President Mnangagwa’s victory and election.

They argued that the two presidents’ absence was calculated to avoid legitimising President Mnangagwa’s win.

But this is not correct. President Hichilema dispatched his Foreign Affairs Minister, Stanley Kakubo, to Harare to witness the inauguration on his behalf.

By assigning Kakubo to Harare, President Hichilema assigned agency to the minister.

If he had not sent any Zambian government official to Harare, detractors would easily claim that President Hichilema refused to have anything to do with the Zimbabwean polls.

What the Zimbabweans fail to understand is that election observer missions the world over are not in place to run elections and determine the results of the polls.

Their mandate is to observe elections and compile a report thereon.

They give recommendations on areas that need rectification or improvement to enhance future elections.

The role of election observer missions is not to undermine the election management institutions of host countries. They should respect the local election management bodies instead of seeking to fight them.

Zimbabwean opposition members and their global supporters should know that observer missions’ mandate does not include administering elections in a host country.

Under the Zimbabwean Constitution, polls are only administered by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) and not some regional election observers.

Another issue that Zimbabweans need to know is that when ZEC declares a winner after elections have been concluded, in nine days the winner has to take his oath of office.

It is not the duty or preserve of the election observer missions to determine when inauguration has to been held. It is also not the duty of election observer missions to determine legitimacy of the winner.

President Mnangagwa’s inauguration marked the end of the 2023 election season.

The swearing in of National Assembly members, Senators and councillors yesterday indicated that it is time for the nation to leave behind the election fever and put all shoulders to the wheel and all boots to the ground to build the country.

We have an economy to rebuild and sanctions-induced poverty to fight. We, therefore, cannot continue wasting time debating matters that are non-issues and are all water under the bridge.