The main opposition party in Zimbabwe had on Friday, September 1, called for nationwide protests and a re-run of the elections that it has since tagged fraudulent. The just concluded elections had seen President Emmerson Mnangagwa clinch a second term in office.
The plea from the Citizens Coalition for Change, CCC, had come only a day after Mnangagwa announced that the elections was null and void, warning that there would be a crackdown on anyone causing chaos on account if making hate speech.
The electoral commission had on Saturday evening, revealed that Mnangagwa had gotten approximately 53% of the vote, leaving Nelson Chamisa, the CCC leader in second place on 44%.
The ruling party, ZANU-PF had been thereafter, named the winner of the parliamentary election but the party had fallen just short of the two-thirds majority vote, needed to revise the constitution.
Political analysts have questioned the plausibility of the elections, especially as it had been tarnished by arrests of the designated vote monitors. The ruling party, ZANU-PF had on its own, said that there had not been irregularities during the election. Mnangagwa had said that anyone with complaints could go to the courts.
But opposition party, CCC had accused ZANU-PF of repressing the vote in areas where it had gotten massive votes, but the party has so far, yet to lodge a legal complaint.
On Friday, the party however called for a demonstration in Zimbabwe’s 10 provinces, and had appealed for activists to initiate online campaigns and share proof of voting malpractice.
The CCC had also called on other African countries to intervene in this dispute with the ruling party, but political pundits have remarked that the chances of overturning the election results via the courts was tenous, given that the judicial system is being allegedly controlled by ZANU-PF.
The CCC has only seven days from the day the results were declared to formally lodge an appeal in the law court.
