Zimbabweans woke up on Monday morning still not knowing if a new future had dawned on the country plagued by political and economic strife.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) promised on Sunday night to have the results for the presidential, parliamentary, senatorial and local council elections ready by Monday morning at 6am.
Shortly before 7am, two commissioners appeared on a live broadcast of the Zimbabwean Broadcasting Corporation, announcing the results of the parliamentary polls from six constituencies, of which the results were split between Zanu-PF and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
On Sunday night, the ZEC headquarters — called the national command centre — was deserted while the commission insisted it was verifying votes. Zimbabweans were starting to get nervous when the results were not announced, as usual, within 24 hours of the polls closing. Voting ended on Saturday when the voting stations closed at 7pm.
Rumours were rife that the delay in releasing the results was fuelled by the poor showing of President Robert Mugabe at the polls. Mugabe also allegedly held emergency meetings with the heads of security forces and his politburo following initial results favouring the MDC.
Preliminary results released on Sunday by the MDC showed that its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, was leading the presidential race. The ZEC was quick to accuse the MDC of acting illegally by publicly announcing results, a competency reserved for the commission.
Shortly after the MDC press conference on Sunday afternoon at the Meikles Hotel in Harare, journalists mobbed ZEC chairperson George Chiweshe, who was at the hotel on unrelated business. Chiweshe was chased through the tea lounge of the five-star establishment, disturbing guests who were having high tea — the hotel’s speciality. Chiweshe had to be rescued by hotel security officers who took him out via a back door.
Election observers from the South African Development Community (SADC) on Sunday declared the election to be ”characterised by high levels of peace, tolerance and political vigour by party leaders, candidates and their supporters”.
The only violent incident mentioned by the SADC team was the bombing of a house of a Zanu-PF candidate in Bulawayo on Saturday, in which no one was injured. No details were given.
Head of the mission Jose Marcos Barrica, Angola’s Minister of Youth and Sports, warned Zimbabweans to accept the election outcome and not to resort to violence.
He listed objections raised during the election period — such as the biased reporting of state media, threats by senior officers in the security forces, the use of public resources for electioneering and the printing and distribution of ballot papers and the presence of police officers in polling stations — but did not venture a judgement on how these had affected the election process.
Barrica refused to declare the elections ”free and fair” but said it was a ”peaceful and credible expression of the will of the people of Zimbabwe”.
South Africa’s opposition Democratic Alliance said, however, that two of its members who had been part of the SADC team had refused to sign its declaration.
The Electoral Institute of Southern Africa declared the election to be ”partially free” but not fair. A full statement by the Eisa observer mission was expected on Monday.