Elections in Zimbabwe 2018

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Elections were held in Zimbabwe on July 30, 2018 . The president and both houses of parliament were elected. It was the first election after the overthrow of long-time ruler Robert Mugabe .

The elections had to the Constitution before the end of the legislative term of Parliament, that is held before August 21, 2018th A postponement of the elections seemed likely after the 2017 military coup . The ruling ZANU-PF initially spoke of September 2018, but then decided on July 30, 2018 as the election date.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa invited election observers from the EU , UN and the Commonwealth to the election in January 2018 .

After the votes for the House of Assembly had been counted, the ZANU-PF was declared the winner on August 1, 2018. The announcement of the results of the presidential election was delayed, which oppositionists interpreted as a sign of attempted election fraud. This led to protests in the capital, Harare , which were violently suppressed by the police.

According to the electoral commission, Mnangagwa won the presidential election in the first round, but the result was challenged in court by second-placed candidate Nelson Chamisa . On August 24, 2018, the objection was rejected and Mnangagwa was sworn in two days later.

Electoral system

The electoral system is based on the Electoral Act of December 15, 2004, which was last amended in 2013. The House of Assembly , the lower house of Zimbabwe, consists of 210 MPs who are directly elected in as many constituencies using simple majority voting. In addition to the directly elected candidates, 6 women are sent to parliament in each of the eight provinces or two metropolitan regions with provincial status. These 60 seats, reserved for women, are allocated according to the proportional share of the votes of the parties in the provinces or metropolitan regions. In the Senate, the second chamber of parliament, 60 of the 80 members are also directly elected using proportional representation; the votes cast for the House of Assembly are used as a basis. 18 chiefs and two representatives of the disabled are elected by special committees.

Any citizen of Zimbabwe who is at least 18 years of age and has been entered in the electoral register in his or her constituency is entitled to vote.

Presidential election

Candidates

Emmerson Mnangagwa

After the coup in November 2017, the ruling ZANU-PF nominated President Emmerson Mnangagwa as its presidential candidate. The 75-year-old Mnangagwa, a veteran of the Rhodesian liberation struggle in the 1970s, is considered a shrewd power politician and longtime political companion of the ousted President Mugabe. His political cleverness earned him the nickname “the crocodile”. As a former head of the secret service, he is said to have been responsible for violent clashes against opposition supporters in the 2008 elections.

The largest opposition party, the MDC, nominated Nelson Chamisa as its candidate after the death of its previous party leader Morgan Tsvangirai on February 14, 2018 . The 40-year-old Chamisa, who became a member of parliament and minister at a relatively young age, first had to get used to his leadership role. He found his following especially among younger voters. The manner in which he took over the leadership of the MDC after Tsvangirai's death was not without controversy, so that a splinter faction of the MDC split off and with Thokozani Khupe put up its own presidential candidate. Chamisa did not succeed in establishing a common front of the opposition parties against the ZANU-PF.

The union of nine parties under the name Coalition of Democrats (CODE) nominated Elton Mangoma from the Renewal Democrats of Zimbabwe party as a presidential candidate in October 2017 .

A total of 23 politicians applied for the office.

Ex-President Robert Mugabe said in a speech the day before the election that he would not vote for Mnangagwa after he was ousted from office by "the party he founded". One cannot “vote for one's tormentors”. Nelson Chamisa is the only opposition candidate with realistic chances of success.

Opinion polls

source Elevation Respondents Emmerson Mnangagwa
( ZANU-PF ) 		Nelson Chamisa
( MDC-T ) 		Others Still undecided
Afro barometer June 25th - 6th July 2018 000000000002400.00000000002,400 40% 37% 3% 20%
Afro barometer April 28-13 May 2018 000000000002399.00000000002,399 42% 31% 26%

General mood in the run-up to the elections

According to an opinion poll conducted by the non-party Afrobarometer among 2,400 people between April 28 and May 13, 2018 , around 40% of those questioned agreed that the military's intervention in the previous year with the subsequent dismissal of President Mugabe was correct. Another 40% agreed with the statement that this action was wrong, but politically necessary. 70% opposed military rule and believed that the military should stay out of politics.

85% of the respondents said they would have registered for the upcoming elections, which led to a high turnout. Approval for biometric voter registration was high (90%). The mistrust regarding the validity of the election process was also comparatively high. 44% of voters expected that an incorrect election result would be announced, and around 30% believed that influential people could commit election fraud and that voting secrecy was not fully respected. 30% thought it was more likely that their own vote would not be counted. About 80% welcomed the presence of foreign election observers. Regarding voting intentions, 42% said they wanted to vote for ZANU-PF, 30% were for MDC-T Chamisa and 1% for the MDC Alliance. 27% were undecided or did not answer this question. The ZANU-PF had its supporters mainly among rural voters. The opposition dominated the cities.

Results

The first results of the election related to voter turnout. In the capital, Harare, it was around 70 percent, while in the rest of the country the turnout was somewhat higher at around 75 percent. Chamisa declared himself the winner of the presidential election on July 31, although no results had been released.

Result of the presidential election

On August 3, the Zimbabwean Electoral Commission announced that incumbent President Mnangagwa had won the election with just over 50 percent of the vote. A slightly modified official election result was published on August 17th. Accordingly, Mnangagwa lost almost 4,500 votes, Chamisa gained almost 4,500 more. Mnangagwa received 50.6% of the vote, Chamisa 44.39%.

After the election results were announced, Chamisa lodged a complaint with the Constitutional Court about an allegedly incorrect election result. a. This delayed the official announcement of the elected president for another 14 days. Khamisa's appeal was dismissed on August 24. According to the unanimous decision of the judge, Chamisa was unable to provide evidence of an incorrect counting of votes; Also, because of a formal error, no other decision could be made. On August 26, 2018, Mnangagwa was sworn in in a public ceremony.

House of Assembly

Constituency majorities

On August 1st, the results of the election for the House of Assembly were announced. Accordingly, the ZANU-PF won a two-thirds majority with 145 seats, and the MDC Alliance received 60 seats. This led to unrest among members of the opposition who accused the electoral commission of electoral fraud, especially since they assumed Chamisa would win. The police and the army violently opposed the protests, and the army shot and killed six demonstrators. ZANU-PF had its strongholds in the country, the MDC Alliance in the two large cities, where it won 39 of the 41 seats.

179
88
1
1
1
179 88 1 1 1 
A total of 270 seats
Political party be right Share of votes
in% 		Parliament seats
Seats Women total Change
from 2013
ZANU-PF 144 35 179 −17
MDC Alliance 64 24 88 +88
NPF 1 - 1 +1
Independent 1 - 1 −1
MDC-T - 1 1 −69
MDC-N - - - −2
Invalid votes - - - - -
total 210 60 270 0
Registered voters / turnout
Source:

senate

Of the 60 mandates awarded by general election, 34 went to the ZANU-PF, 25 to the MDC Alliance and one to the MDC-T.

reception

EU election observers classified the elections as “free but not fair” because of the preference given to the ZANU-PF in the mass media.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Big turnout of voters forecast for Zimbabwe election. timeslive.com.za, June 11, 2018, accessed June 17, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Time Frame for the 2018 Elections. The Zimbabwean , February 25, 2018, accessed April 14, 2018 .
  3. ^ Zimbabwe's Mnangagwa promises jobs in 'new democracy'. BBC, November 22, 2017, accessed November 23, 2017 .
  4. ^ Zimbabwe's president seeks to build bridges with west. Financial Times, January 18, 2018, accessed January 19, 2018 .
  5. ↑ ZIMBABWE National Assembly. Inter-Parliamentary Union , accessed July 29, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Zanu-PF reveals Mnangagwa as 2018 presidential candidate. The Zimbabwean, November 19, 2017.
  7. ↑ Emmerson Mnangagwa: The 'crocodile' who snapped back. BBC News, July 13, 2018, accessed July 30, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Election: Mnangagwa versus Chamisa. Zimbabwe Independent, March 2, 2018.
  9. ↑ Shingai Nyoka: Nelson Chamisa - Zimbabwe's young political crusader. July 17, 2018, accessed July 30, 2018 .
  10. ↑ Code nominates Mangoma as presidential candidate. Newsday March 20, 2018.
  11. ↑ 'Magic owls', ghost voters and Zimbabwe's election. BBC News, July 23, 2018, accessed July 23, 2018 .
  12. ↑ Zimbabwe election: Mugabe refuses to back Mnangagwa successor. BBC News, July 29, 2018, accessed July 30, 2018 .
  13. ^ Zimbabwe's presidential race tightens one month ahead of July 30 voting, new survey finds. (pdf) www.afrobarometer.org, accessed on July 27, 2018 (English).
  14. ↑ Big turnout of voters forecast for Zimbabwe election (English) . 
  15. ↑ Summary of Results Pre-Election Baseline Survey in Zimbabwe April / May 2018. (pdf) www.afrobarometer.org, accessed on July 27, 2018 (English).
  16. ↑ Historic turnout • Provinces average 75 percent voters • Vote counting currently underway herald.co.zw. Accessed July 31, 2018
  17. ↑ Zimbabwe election results LIVE. Chamisa declares VICTORY despite Mnangagwa showing lead. express.co.uk, August 1, 2018, accessed August 11, 2018
  18. ^ Zim election dispute: Electoral commission trims Mnangagwa's lead. News24.com, August 18, 2018.
  19. ^ Zimbabwe presidential inauguration delayed. bbc.com of August 10, 2018 (English), accessed on August 19, 2018
  20. ↑ Panashe Chigumadzi: Old Zimbabwe Is the New Zimbabwe. New York Times, August 24, 2018, accessed August 25, 2018
  21. ↑ Godfrey Marawanyika, Brian Latham: Zimbabwe court rejects opposition bid to overturn election result. bloomberg.com from August 24, 2018, accessed on August 27, 2018
  22. ↑ Farai Mutsuka (AP): A subdued Zimbabwe inaugurates Mnangagwa after disputed vote. pahomepage.com from August 26, 2018 (English), accessed on August 26, 2018
  23. ↑ Bernd Dörries: Police shoot demonstrators with live ammunition. Süddeutsche Zeitung , August 1, 2018.
  24. ↑ Death toll from Harare violence rises. zbc.co.zw from August 2, 2018 (English), accessed on August 8, 2018
  25. ↑ Zimbabwe Electoral Commission: Summary of 2018 results for National Assembly (PDF)
  26. ↑ ZEC names elected senators. zbc.co.zw (English), accessed on August 8, 2018
  27. ↑ Election valid in Zimbabwe. Deutsche Welle on August 24, 2018, accessed on November 5, 2018