Zanu-PF already promising a landslide victory days before the elections are conducted
In less than a week, Zimbabweans go to the polls on 23rd August 2023 with the incumbent President Emerson Mnangagwa and the ZANU-PF party already predicting a convincing victory. It has been an election punctuated by intimidation and violence against opposition candidates turbocharged by the notorious Patriotic Act (2023).
Secrets Known has been informed that the intimidation and violation have had a chilling effect on the electorate at the grassroots level. This skews the electoral playing field in favour of incumbency.
Mnangagwa and the opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) party’s Nelson Chamisa are the frontline contenders for the presidential election. Mnangagwa’s main target is to win over the capital Harare which has been an opposition stronghold since 2010.
The secret known is that the ZANU-PF regime has done everything within its power to significantly shrink the political space for opposition parties and intimidate their supporters. The mantra from the ZANU-PF camp has been, “forget about the opposition getting into power”. In other words, hook or crook, they must win.
There are questions about the credibility of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to deliver an electoral result that expresses the true will of the electors. It is the view of opposition political parties that the electoral umpire may not act free of interference from the ZANU-PF regime whose foundation is coup d’etat.
Independent observers are reporting that the ZANU-PF party has demonstrated the power of money in campaigns and it is mind boggling where that money is coming from. The secret known is that money is being used to crowd out the opposition candidates and to control voter consent.
The electoral commission has accredited over 46 countries, 17 continental and regional bodies including the European Union and the Commonwealth), 51 embassies, 9 consulates and 54 foreign media agencies to observe the 23rd August 2023 harmonised elections. However, some citizen observer groups are still not yet accredited, less than 5 days to the elections. The voters roll has a population is 6.6 million voters.