Zimbabwe’s eagerly awaited election results were, by Friday, following a familiar script of malpractices and self-declarations, signalling a spiral back to the old problems.

It began Wednesday, the voting day, where massive delays in delivery of ballot papers punctuated rigging claims by opposition groups.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa later issued a decree to extend voting by another day in 40 wards in Harare, Mashonaland Central and Manicaland provinces after a “shambolic” polling day on Wednesday, according to the critics.

Voting in some wards started an hour before polling stations were officially scheduled to close as election materials were delivered late while in some areas the process was interrupted by shortages of voting material.

President Mnangagwa’s main challenger Nelson Chamisa of the opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) accused the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) of trying to disfranchise voters in opposition strongholds, usually the main cities, to help the incumbent.

Read: Zimbabwe elections: What you need to know

Mr Chamisa, a 45-year-old lawyer and pastor who wants to oust the 80-year-old ruler, vowed to reject a “rigged” election in what could be a replay of the disputed 2018 elections.

“The fact that they have targeted Harare and Bulawayo is an indication that they are scared of people in the urban areas,” he said.
Urban areas have been opposition strongholds since the turn of the millennium.

Strongholds

On Wednesday voting largely went on smoothly in rural constituencies where the ruling Zanu-PF party draws most of its support.

Political analysts said the delays in voting in urban areas were a voter suppression tactic, which has made an electoral challenge after the release of the results inevitable.

Read: Zimbabwe’s new elections facing familiar old fears

Phillan Zamchiya, a political analyst, said the strategy was to cause distortions in opposition strongholds.

“One can fairly conclude that what happened in Zimbabwe on polling day was an attempt at voter suppression in opposition strongholds in the metropolitan provinces,” Dr Zamchiya said.

“The political strategy was evidently to frustrate the opposition voters. “Within these machinations, voters should not be passive victims.”

Civil society organisations said the government was cracking down on poll monitors to cover up for alleged rigging in the presidential, parliamentary elections.

Thirty-nine monitors that were working for organisations that are doing a parallel vote tabulation exercise were arrested on the first day of voting after police accused them of preparing to announce unofficial results.

“The night raid and detention of peaceful civil society actors makes Zimbabwe an outpost of tyranny,” the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, a group of over 40 human rights groups, said.

“The state must desist from dictatorial tendencies and respect the pivotal role of civil society organisations in ensuring credible polls. ‘We wish to also remind the Zanu PF government that the right to vote is sacrosanct, not least because it is enshrined in our constitution, but that it is a virtue of the liberation struggle. To organise a shame election in which ordinary Zimbabweans fail to freely express themselves directly equates to reversing the gains of the liberation struggle.”

Wider concern

A day before the elections, the United States said it was concerned about the closure of the democratic space in Zimbabwe.

Read: US 'dismayed' by Zimbabwe arrest of election monitors

“We believe the best route to peace and prosperity is for governments to respect the right of citizens to vote and allow for peaceful and democratic political processes,” US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller.

“We are concerned by recent actions leading up to the elections, including political violence and legislation that curtails human rights and freedoms enshrined in Zimbabwe’s constitution.

“The United States condemns the denial of credentials for multiple international journalists and domestic civil society members to cover the elections in-country, and delays in election observation accreditation.”

At the turn of the millennium, Western countries slapped sanctions on the country for alleged election fraud.