Zim election critics do not invalidate results – Geingob

President Hage Geingob has defended his congratulatory message to Zimbabwe’s incumbent president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, saying those who are “aggrieved” by the outcome of the just-ended Zimbabwean elections should lodge their complaints with the country’s institutions and systems.

This comes after election observers stated that the just-concluded elections were not free and fair.

“President Geingob is conscious that it is the right of Zimbabweans and those who feel aggrieved with the outcome of the elections to seek recourse with the systems and institutions of Zimbabwe,” the Office of the President said yesterday.

One of these institutions is the Southern African Development Community (SADC) electoral observation mission, which has received reports of people being intimidated to vote for a particular party.

“Comments made by electoral observers about aspects of an election, including those that may need improvement, do not invalidate the electoral outcomes in a sovereign country,” Geingob said through his office.

The president said the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) is an authentic body which qualified Mnangagwa as the winner of the election.

“The president has every right to congratulate his counterpart in his capacity as the president of Namibia,” Geingob said.

He said he is a champion of transparency and leads the fight against corruption in Namibia, which he considers to be “the enemy of development”.

Meanwhile, the leader of the Landless People’s Movement (LPM), Bernadus Swartbooi, has referred to the elections as confirmation of vote theft by the ruling Zanu-PF.

Swartbooi yesterday said his party has observed the elections with “disdain and contempt”.

“The elections as per the SADC observer report fell short of the requirements of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, the Electoral Act and the SADC principles and guidelines governing democratic elections in the region,” he said.

The ZEC “dismally” failed to safeguard democracy, he said.

“The police violently arrested members of the Zimbabwe Elections Support Network (ZESN) and the Elections Results Centre on 23 August, and 16 of its staff members, with election support network members being released on about N$3 695 bail each by a magistrate,” Swartbooi said.

He said mobile phones and computers were seized by the police, accusing these people of coordinating an alleged early release of the election results.

SADC observer teams said the voting process was peaceful, but noted issues including delays, the banning of rallies of opposition parties, biased state media coverage and the failure of the electoral commission to give candidates access to the voters’ roll, Swartbooi said.

“Voting stations in urban areas opened four to five hours late, because they knew that in urban areas the opposition party Citizen’s Coalition for Change (CCC) is stronger.

“As such, they went for the voter suppression approach,” he said.

Swartbooi said civil society organisations that were believed to have been conducting lawful non-partisan election observation work were arrested.

“Also, a registration fee of about N$371 487,66 was instituted for entry as a presidential candidate. This was clearly meant to resist and restrict any strong candidate for the presidency,” he said.

Swartbooi said the ZEC did not make the voters’ roll available to the opposition in time.

“If you do not have the voters’ roll, how do you verify the number of registered voters?” he asked.

“According to reports, there were also undue and illegal restrictions on freedoms of assembly and expression. And according to the Commonwealth observers, there was unequal media coverage of the elections as state media entities were forced to cover only Zanu-PF events,” he said.

OBSERVERS ATTACKED

The head of Namibia’s observer mission, Ndali Kamati, has told the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation that the observers have an agenda against countries like Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa.

“So we keep inviting them because we are not hiding anything,” he said.

Kamati insisted that elections are transparent and free in these countries.

“…but we do not appreciate such kinds of pronouncements. It is a direct attack on our liberation movements and on our governments and our systems,” he said.

‘ASSAULT ON DEMOCRACY’

Political analyst Ndumba Kamwanyah says Kamati seems more concerned about the image of the former liberation movement than his mission.
“…which is to observe whether that election was conducted in an acceptable manner,” he says.

Another analyst, Rui Tyitende, reiterated that the SADC and European Union observer missions declared the elections as not free and fair.

“So, the remarks by president Geingob and ambassador Kamati should be interpreted as a blatant assault on democracy,” he says.

He believes that their remarks are a national embarrassment for the people of Zimbabwe and Namibia.

“At best, election results must reflect the preferences of a majority of voters. However, in this case, it is rather evident and unfortunate that it is not the people who vote who determine the outcome of an election, but the people who count the votes,” Tyitende says.

OPPOSITION SOLIDARITY

Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) parliamentarian Inna Hengari pronounced her position on social media before the conclusion of the polls.

“We on the opposition benches have often avoided openly expressing our solidarity with opposing political parties in SADC, an act I consider opportunistic and flabby,” she said.

She said the entire region is aware of Zimbabwe’s socio-economic woes.

Hengari expressed the hope that the elections would lead to a new Zimbabwe.

“[One] in which members of the fourth realm can operate independently, as some have done in an effort to strengthen freedom of expression, a Zimbabwe free of the constraints of sanctions, and where vehicles belonging to the security cluster are just that, rather than being reduced to campaign machinery by the administration,” she said.