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'Magic owls', ghost voters and Zimbabwe's election
Excellent stuff.They have a choice of 23 on the ballot which sounds like democracy to me.
Fingers crossed Billy. Small steps. The test will come if the vote goes against El Presidente.'Magic owls', ghost voters and Zimbabwe's election
Excellent stuff.They have a choice of 23 on the ballot which sounds like democracy to me.
Sounds more like a circle jerk.
Democracy ?Whenever the blacks in Africa kick out the whites and try to govern themselves, this is what you get. .....
You do know theres more to democracy than just the number of candidates on the ballot, don’t you?'Magic owls', ghost voters and Zimbabwe's election
Excellent stuff.They have a choice of 23 on the ballot which sounds like democracy to me.
[/QUOTE]Opposition calls Zimbabwe poll results a 'coup'...
Zimbabwe election: Opposition calls poll results a 'coup'
3 Aug.`18 - Zimbabwe's opposition leader has said President Emmerson Mnangagwa's election victory is a "coup against [the people's will".
Nelson Chamisa repeated his claim that the results announced late on Thursday night were fake, and said he had won Monday's presidential poll. Responding, Mr Mnangagwa called for peace but said people were free to challenge the result in court. This was the first election since long-term leader Robert Mugabe was ousted. Earlier, in a tweet, the president urged Zimbabweans to unite to create "a new beginning" after a vote that was intended to set Zimbabwe on a new path following years of repressive rule.
What is Nelson Chamisa saying?
Addressing journalists on Friday afternoon, Mr Chamisa called on his rival not to accept "corrupted results". He added that his MDC Alliance would pursue all legal and constitutional avenues to challenge the official result. The opposition leader said he had evidence that ballot boxes were being transported in open trucks allowing them to be tampered with. He questioned the discrepancies in the numbers of votes tallied in the parliamentary elections compared with the presidential poll. Both elections took place at the same time. Mr Chamisa also said that his election agent was not allowed to verify the results on Thursday.
What is Emmerson Mnangagwa's response?
An hour after Mr Chamisa's press conference ended, the president spoke to journalists at state house. He did not address the opposition leader's specific allegations, but said that under the country's constitution people were "free... to approach the courts". Addressing Mr Chamisa directly, the president said: "You have a crucial role to play in Zimbabwe's present and in its unfolding future." "Let us call for peace and unity in our land," he added. He said he would be the president of all Zimbabweans, "for those who voted for me and for those who did not".
A test for the new democracy
Before the vote, Mnangagwa had said a credible election could pull Zimbabwe out of its diplomatic isolation under former president Robert Mugabe, ending international sanctions and prompting an economic recovery. Instead, the vote left the nation polarised, with Nelson Chamisa, who leads the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), mounting the legal challenge and violence flaring on the streets of Harare. In a unanimous ruling of the nine judges of the country’s top court, Chief Justice Luke Malaba said Chamisa had failed to prove allegations of fraud during the presidential vote. “Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa is duly declared the winner of the presidential elections held on the 30th of July 2018,” Malaba said in his ruling. Chamisa had earlier said he reserved the right to take alternative actions, including peaceful protests, if he lost the legal case.
On Friday, he did not spell out his next step but told his supporters on Twitter that he would consult them on the “course of action to be taken to rescue our beautiful Zimbabwe from the jaws of poverty, corruption & dishonesty”. The election, in which Mnangagwa and Chamisa were the main contenders, was touted as a crucial step towards shedding Zimbabwe’s pariah reputation and securing international donor funding to revive an economy suffering chronic shortages of investment and cash, as well as high unemployment. An army crackdown in response to post-election violence by opposition supporters left six people dead on Aug. 1, recalling the heavy-handed security tactics that marked the 37-year rule of Mugabe, who was removed in a coup last November. Mnangagwa now faces the challenge of persuading the international community that the army crackdown and lapses in the election process will not derail his promise of reforms to overcome corruption and mismanagement under Mugabe.
After the ruling was delivered, the president called for peace on his Twitter feed. “Nelson Chamisa, my door is open and my arms are outstretched, we are one nation, and we must put our nation first. Let us all now put our differences behind us,” he said. Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa told Reuters that Mnangagwa would be inaugurated on Sunday. At ZANU-PF’s offices, hundreds of supporters in the party’s green and yellow colours followed Malaba’s judgment on television, erupting into song and dance after their candidate was confirmed as president. “He won the battle,” a supporter told Reuters TV, adding that while Mnangagwa’s enemies were trying their best, “they fail”.
HARARE CALM
