Zimbabwe’s presidential and parliamentary elections on Wednesday carry high stakes for the nation, the region and the world.
Economic turmoil over the past two decades in Zimbabwe, a southern African nation of 16 million, has left millions of people suffering and strained neighboring countries as well. Political instabilities have made Zimbabwe a pariah of the United States and other Western nations, which have imposed sanctions, hampering investments and partnerships that could help ease Zimbabwe’s woes.
Still, Western powers see value in the relationship — to tap into the country’s wealth of natural resources, including Africa’s largest lithium reserves, and to offset the influence of China and Russia in a broader competition for influence on the continent.
But many domestic and international experts say the vote is shaping up to be a sham, likening it to previous elections that kept the former liberation leader Robert Mugabe in power for 37 years before his ouster in a coup.
The police have cracked down on opponents of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, the incumbent, whose ZANU-PF party has governed the country since independence in 1980. Inconsistencies in voter rolls and confusion over polling sites have fueled accusations that the national electoral commission is in the party’s back pocket. And the authorities have banned some civil society leaders and reporters from foreign news outlets from entering the country to cover the elections, including The New York Times.
Party officials have denied trying to play foul. Mr. Mnangagwa is poised for a big victory, they say, because he has set the country on track economically.
But surveys suggest that many Zimbabweans have lost faith in their president.
Nearly 6 in 10 Zimbabweans believe that corruption has grown worse under his watch, and more than 70 percent say the country is going in the wrong direction, according to Afrobarometer, a nonpartisan research firm that conducts surveys across Africa.
“Mnangagwa’s policies have not delivered,” said Vince Musewe, an economist based in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital. “They have had a negative social impact in the sense that the lifestyle and quality of life of ordinary Zimbabweans has not improved. It’s actually gotten worse.”
Here is what to know about the vote.
Who’s running, and when will there be a result?
Eleven presidential candidates are on the ballot. The clear front-runners are Mr. Mnangagwa, running in his second election, and Nelson Chamisa, who challenged Mr. Mnangagwa in 2018 and now leads a new party, Citizens Coalition for Change.
Mr. Mnangagwa, 80, fought to liberate the country from the British colonial government, which imprisoned him for 10 years for bombing a train. A former practicing lawyer, Mr. Mnangagwa served as state security chief and rose to become Mr. Mugabe’s vice president.
Mr. Chamisa, 45, was a youth leader in his previous party and joined Parliament two decades ago.
The polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m….
2023-08-22 23:01:39
Article from www.nytimes.com
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