Zimbabwe's Vote Wil Turn Mugabe's Page - The Paul Biya Of Zimbabwe..!

The regime’s generals and caciques have installed one of their relatives on the throne, 75-year-old Vice-President Mnangagwa, who hopes to reinforce on July 30, in the polls, his authority over the country for the next five years.

His main opponent in the race for power is the young leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Nelson Chamisa, a 40-year-old lawyer who wants to embody change and break with the old regime.

With the support of the army, the ruling party and the state media, the head of state is a favorite, amid accusations of fraud Mr. Chamisa.

“Emmerson Mnangagwa is likely to retain power after the July 30 poll, which augurs well for a period of political stability and economic reforms,” ​​said the BMI Research Center along with others.
But the publication, in the final stretch of the campaign, of a survey crediting the outgoing and its main rival of respectively 40 and 37% of the voting intentions has indicated a tighter election than expected.

If none of the 23 candidates – a record – obtains Monday more than 50% of the vote, a second round is scheduled on 8 September.

In recent weeks, Emmerson Mnangagwa has crisscrossed the country by deliberately turning his back on his past to portray himself as the man of Zimbabwe’s revival.

– Renewal –

“I am now Mr. New Projects,” said Emmerson Mnangagwa this week.
At length of speech, he promised the apogee of a “new democracy” and billions of dollars of investment which will, he assures, put back up an economy ruined by the crisis and by the catastrophic reforms of his predecessor.

To bring foreign companies back to Zimbabwe, the president guaranteed “free, fair and transparent” elections, breaking with the violence and fraud that marred the Mugabe era polls.

Except for a bomb attack that targeted the president last month in Bulawayo (south), the campaign was rather quiet.
“We are experiencing an election period of unprecedented calm,” Foreign Minister Sibusiso Moyo said this week.

But the opposition denounces for weeks already many irregularities in the preparation of the vote.

On the eve of the vote, Nelson Chamisa, set foot in the dish by rejecting a vote in his eyes “biased”. “The Electoral Commission is biased (…) there has been a systematic denial of international standards for the disclosure of election materials,” he pleaded.

Returning for the first time in Zimbabwe for sixteen years, Western election observation missions have so far refrained from reacting to these accusations.

“The international community wants an election that allows it to return to Zimbabwe,” said analyst AFP Showers Mawowa, the NGO Southern African Liaison Office. “The political and economic interests are such that the stability of the country will prevail”.

– “Intimidations” –

Only the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has sounded the alarm for the time being deploring “intimidation” and “threats” to voters.

Despite his accusations and fears, Mr. Chamisa refused to boycott the poll, convinced of his victory.
“Mnangagwa knows that the defeat hangs in his face, we will go to the polls and beat him,” he said, “the winners do not boycott”.

His assurance already suggests challenges and tensions by the proclamation of results by the ZEC, announced for August 4.
“The post-election violence remains a possible scenario,” said Mawowa, “and there are reasons to worry about whether the military would accept a possible victory for the opposition.”

Eight months ago, the Zimbabwean street saluted the fall of the autocrat with thunderous applause, a sigh of relief and the promise of a better tomorrow.

Whatever her favorite, she expects Monday’s election to finally kick off the revival.
“We have been suffering for too long, we have no money, life is hard,” Lustina Mudavanhu, a 68-year-old peasant who came to support Nelson Chamisa on a visit to Bindura, northeast of Harare, said on Friday.