Zimbabwe’s 2013 election
The election will be the first under a new constitution signed into law by President Robert Mugabe on May 22, 2013. Apart from the 89-year-old Mugabe of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), the presidential race will also feature four other candidates, Domiso Dabengwa of Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU); Kisnot Mukwashi of Zimbabwe […]
The election will be the first under a new constitution signed into law by President Robert Mugabe on May 22, 2013. Apart from the 89-year-old Mugabe of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), the presidential race will also feature four other candidates, Domiso Dabengwa of Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU); Kisnot Mukwashi of Zimbabwe Democratic Party (ZDP); Morgan Tsvangirai of Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T), and Welshman Ncube of a breakaway faction of the MDC. Tsvangirai, who is prime minster in a tenuous power-sharing deal, had urged for the elections to be held in August, a position backed by the regional economic bloc, the Southern African Development Commission (SADC). Mugabe threatened to pull the country out of membership of SADC, accusing the organisation of interference in the internal affairs of Zimbabwe.
SADC’s position had been influenced by the European Union, which said it wanted “Zimbabwe to hold a credible, free and fair election’’. SADC has expressed confidence in the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission’s capacity to get a pass following a successful conduct of a referendum on the new constitution.
Mugabe has labelled the election as ‘’a do or die struggle’’, warning SADC not to ‘’do stupid things’’. Critics however see a hidden agenda to rig the process. It is, however, more useful to link his view to the fate of the ‘’National Indigenization and Economic Empowerment Bill’’ which was passes by a ZANU-PF dominated parliament in September 2007 and signed into law by Mugabe on May 9. 2008. It states that it is meant to benefit ‘’any person who before the 18th April, 1980 was disadvantaged by unfair discrimination on the grounds of his or her race, and any descendant of such persons’’.
The law requires that all foreign owned businesses ensure 50 per cent ownership of shares in their enterprises was held by ‘’local black Africans’’. This followed earlier muscular measures to transfer land owned by non-Africans to previously landless Africans. Both measures provoked disinvestment and/or migration out of the country. Active resistance, sabotage was aided by hostile embargos and sanctions by the European Union, the United States and Canada. Shortages in commodities and food in markets led to roaring increases in prizes.
However, by all accounts, the Zimbabwe economy has stabilised but occasional hiccups occur.
Fear by Mugabe that ZANU-PF’s achievements are vulnerable and could be reversed by a hostile MDC-T government makes the July 31, 2013 a ‘’do or die struggle’’. Tsvangirai’s party had opposed the Bill and legislation.
The government has banned election observers from the European Union, but the credibility of the electoral commission is largely unchallenged. Observers from SADC and the African Union will be allowed in.
Mugabe demonstrated leadership for speaking out against violence in the election campaign. That is how it should be. It is a tribute to the growth of democracy in Zimbabwe that, so far, there has been a general absence of campaign violence. Party leaders should strive to maintain that standard. By any stretch of the imagination, Mugabe at 89 would be considered by many to be too old to seek to remain in active politics and seek the very demanding office of the president. The independence-era hero has every right to contest, if the law does not bar him. Younger and arguably more physically agile leaders have a mixed record in giving Africa corruption-free and intolerance free governance.
If he wins again, the rest of the world must accept the choice that Zimbabweans make; if on the other hand he loses, it is in the interest of all Zimbabweans that this choice be respected.