WE are happy with the peace that has characterised the Zimbabwean polity before, during and has continued even after the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) announced the final results of the just ended harmonised general elections.
We take this opportunity to congratulate President Emmerson Mnangagwa and ZANU PF for being declared the winners.
The prevailing tranquility is a fitting tribute to the respect Zimbabweans have always given to a democratic process bequeathed to them by a successful armed liberation struggle.
Indeed, Zimbabweans should be proud that they have respected this democratic ritual by holding general elections every five years without fail.
We were very pleased to note that the leading contenders, ZANU PF’s President Mnangagwa and Nelson Chamisa of CCC were both brimming with confidence on the eve of the plebiscites.
This showed their confidence in the electoral process.
There might have been some incidents here and there caused by some deviants, but never on an organised scale.
It’s a pity there were some logistical problems in some urban areas on voting day. Though this inconvenienced voters of all contesting political parties equally at the affected centres, it is the calmness of those at the queues that was remarkable.
However, when ZEC announced the final results, Chamisa had learned that in a general election overall national, as opposed to sectoral appeal, carries the day. As both President Mnangagwa and Chamisa had placed their vote of confidence in the electorate, we expected the loser to respect the views of the majority of voters.
This was not to be.
Chamisa rejected the results outright, claiming that ZEC had been compromised.
He must have been encouraged by some observer teams who seemed to have connived in condemning the voting process as being defective.
With the EU Observer Mission, this was a given.
What was shocking, however, was the interim report by the SADC Observer Mission headed by Zambian President Hakainde Hichilems’s appointee, Dr Nevers Mumba.
Dr Mumba, a known ally of Chamisa, read out an interim report that seemed to be a catalogue of the complaints by the CCC leader.
Instead, we expected his report to spell out his team’s observations as defined by their mandate.
It turned out to be a biased report based on hearsay.
He strayed into matters that infringed on the sovereignty of Zimbabwe; for Dr Mumba had the audacity to challenge our judiciary, legislature and even our Constitution. We are sure the re-examination of the Saviour Kasukuwere judgment, the Public Order Security Act (POSA) and the Patriotic Act was beyond his competence.
That is why former Mozambique President Joaquim Chisano described Dr Mumba’s behaviour as ‘unheard of’’.
His interim report, if adopted as is, has the potential to give regime change disciples false, but dangerous hope.
Already his friend Chamisa has rejected the results, but is unable to produce V11s. Of course he had already vowed that he would not recognise any result that did not see him win.
He is a well known serial bad loser.
What is significant, however, is that other countries, including South Africa, Tanzania, Botswana and Namibia, have already endorsed the election.
Two of the three SADC Troika (Namibia and Tanzania) are among those that have already approved of the poll results.
Zambia’s Hichilema is the third.
Even the successful candidates from Chamisa’s CCC have endorsed the outcome of the polls, if we are to go by the way they are celebrating.
What we are all now looking forward to is the peaceful inauguration of President Mnangagwa to bring a closure to the August 23 2023 harmonised general elections and get back to developing the country.
