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Leela Jacinto
France 24
July 30, 2013
Zimbabwe goes to the polls on Wednesday in the first election since the violently contested 2008 vote. President Robert Mugabe once again faces off against Morgan Tsvangirai amid fresh fears of another post-electoral crisis.
Five years after the violent and disputed 2008 elections, Zimbabwe goes to the polls on Wednesday in a vote featuring the same presidential frontrunners amid fresh fears of another post-electoral crisis.
More than 6 million registered voters are set to elect a president, parliament and district councils in this southern African nation of over 13 million people.
But the real race – one that is being carefully watched, if not officially monitored – by the international community, is the electoral faceoff between President Robert Mugabe and his arch-rival, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
At 89, Mugabe, the leader of the ZANU-PF party, is seeking to extend his 33 years in power as Africa’s oldest leader.
Tsvangirai, 61, the leader of the MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) party, is considered the president’s only credible challenger though there are two other presidential candidates in the race.
Mugabe and Tsvangirai have been in an uneasy, power-sharing government, which has succeeded in stabilising an economy in freefall and ending hyperinflation. But the alliance has been fraught with mutual suspicions that have only risen in the runup to Wednesday’s vote.
In a letter published on Monday in the domestic News Day newspaper and the Washington Post, Tsvangirai accused Mugabe of “attempting to steal Zimbabwe’s most important election”.
The former trade union leader went on to note that, “Mugabe is the world’s oldest leader and one of its longest-ruling dictators. He is fixing this election in a more sophisticated fashion than previous ZANU-PF campaigns of beatings, killings and intimidation.”
Mugabe however has denied the allegations. At a rare press briefing in the capital of Harare on the eve of the elections, the Zimbabwean president insisted that, “We have done no cheating.”
The incumbent president also vowed to step down if he loses the election. “If you lose, you must surrender,” said Mugabe, who has been in power since the country gained independence from Britain in 1980.
