The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has come under fire over its response to allegations of poll theft against MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa’s reported victory in the 2018 presidential poll.
The electoral body responded to exiled former ZANU PF politburo member Jonathan Moyo’s allegations of poll fraud.
In his book titled Excelgate: How Zimbabwe’s 2018 Presidential Election was Stolen, which was published in December 2019, Moyo claimed that ZEC had worked with security apparatus to overturn the result in favour of President Mnangagwa.
Commenting on ZEC’s response to the rigging claims, which was posted on the ZEC Twitter page over the weekend, political analyst Fidelis Duri argued that the electoral body was desperate for credibility. He said:
There was a lot of talk on how the elections were rigged following Moyo’s publication and ZEC was quiet.
The reason is that ZEC is desperate for credibility now that we are heading for the 2023 elections.
ZEC is under the spotlight by both local and international election observers, hence it has to clear the air on allegations of electoral fraud and it had to respond to Moyo’s claims.
Responding now can just be described as desperate measures to gain credibility and the mandate to run the 2023 elections.
ZEC has lost its credibility amidst the issue of former Chief Justice Luke Malaba fiasco.
Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum executive director Musa Kika said:
This is a classic diversion from accountability. ZEC is not being truthful when it says Moyo’s claims were dealt with by the courts.
For instance, he is claiming that ZEC is infiltrated by members of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO). That issue was never brought before the courts.
We expect ZEC to take seriously Moyo’s claims and prove beyond reasonable doubt that they are false if it wants to clear the air on the question of credibility which is hanging.
Failure to do that means we are going to the 2023 elections which would be run by a body that has lost its credibility among the electorate and within the political space.
ZEC declared Mnangagwa the winner with 50,7% of the votes, narrowly avoiding a run-off with Chamisa who officially received 44,3%.
But Moyo in his book claimed that Mnangagwa polled 33% to Chamisa’s 66% and that the Joint Operations Command tampered with ballot figures in a “brazen” and “audacious” fraud.