Obert Mpofu threatens jail to those who declare election results before ZEC

Zimbabwe’s government warned election candidates on Tuesday they faced prosecution and jail for prematurely announcing results of landmark polls after the main opposition MDC party said it had won.

“As a government we have noted with concern the actions and conduct of some political party leaders… who are openly declaring that they will announce results irrespective of provisions of the law,” said Home Affairs Minister Obert Mpofu at a media briefing in Harare.

“I am sure no one wants to provoke the wrath of the law and risk being sent to jail.”

The opposition MDC party on Tuesday claimed victory in the country’s historic elections while the government threatened to jail leaders announcing results as the wait for official tallies dragged on.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa said information on the “ground is extremely positive” about his prospects of victory in Zimbabwe’s first election since former leader Robert Mugabe was ousted in November after 37 years in power.

Their competing claims raise the prospect of fraud allegations and a possible run-off vote in September — required if no candidate wins at least 50 percent of ballots in the first round.

Senior MDC veteran Tendai Biti had earlier said the party would release its own results if the vote did not go in favour of Chamisa.

It is an offence to announce poll results ahead of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), Mpofu has said.

The ZEC had earlier warned that the results of the presidential first round may not be known until Friday or even Saturday and would not be released until tallies were received from all 10,985 polling stations.

“We are nowhere near where we expected to be, so I can quite see us going into the fifth day which is allowed by law — but we are working flat-out,” ZEC chairwoman Priscilla Chigumba told a media briefing in Harare.

On Wednesday attention will shift to the European Union’s electoral monitoring team which will deliver a much-anticipated report on the conduct of the polls and counting process.

Their findings will also be an important verdict on Mnangagwa, 75, who has staked his reputation on delivering credible polls since he took power last year.

“There are shortcomings that we have to check. We don’t know yet whether it was a pattern,” the EU’s chief observer Elmar Brok told AFP during voting Monday.

Observers from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the African Union will also deliver reports on the polls.

‘Deliberate delay’

Biti had earlier accused the ZEC of deliberately delaying the publication of results to help ZANU-PF.

“The results show beyond reasonable doubt that we have won the election and that the next president of Zimbabwe is Nelson Chamisa,” Biti told a press conference at the party’s headquarters in Harare on Tuesday.

Outside, MDC supporters danced jubilantly in the street brandishing “Vote Nelson Chamisa” posters while four water cannons and police personnel carriers patrolled nearby.

There were no reports of clashes in stark contrast to elections under the authoritarian Mugabe that were mired by violence — although police called on party leaders to encourage restraint among their supporters.

“We are however seriously concerned about evidence of interference… there is a deliberate delay in announcing the results. This delay is totally unacceptable,” Biti added.

ZEC chair Chigumba has flatly denied allegations of bias and strongly disputed accusations of rigging.

Analysts have said it was unclear whether the country’s generals, who ousted Mugabe and ushered Mnangagwa into office, would accept an MDC victory.

Military intervention?

Defeat for the ruling party would likely lead “to a denunciation of the election by the Mnangagwa administration and the potential for the military to intervene to secure power for ZANU-PF,” the London-based BMI risk consultancy said.

“There is no way that ZANU-PF will accept an MDC victory. We know that people will be beaten — especially in rural areas, like what they were doing before,” said Harare shop worker Tracy Kubara, 26.

If required, Zimbabwe’s 5.6 million registered voters would be asked to return to the polls to vote in a presidential run-off on September 8.

Mugabe, 94, voted in Harare alongside his wife Grace. That followed a surprise press conference at his home on Sunday at which he stunned observers and called for voters to reject ZANU-PF, his former party.

Mnangagwa, Mugabe’s former right-hand man in ZANU-PF, was the clear election front-runner, benefitting from tacit military support, loyal state media and ruling party control of government resources.

But Chamisa, 40, a lawyer and pastor who performed strongly on the campaign trail, sought to tap into the youth and urban vote.

High turnout of around 75 percent before polls closed on Monday evening could favour Chamisa.

He has repeatedly accused ZANU-PF and election authorities of trying to fix the result via a flawed register of voters, ballot paper malpractice and voter intimidation.

Whoever wins will face a mass unemployment crisis and an economy shattered by the Mugabe-era seizure of white-owned farms, the collapse of agriculture, hyperinflation and an exodus of investment.

Earlier

Anxious wait for results

“I am scared — is there going to be unrest?” Stone Sibanda, a 39-year-old taxi driver in Harare, told AFP. “It is a very sensitive moment. Everyone is anxious.”

Estimated turnout was around 75 percent before polls closed on Monday evening after a peaceful day of voting.

Early results from the elections — presidential, parliamentary and local — are expected Tuesday, and full results are due by Saturday.

At one polling station in the capital Harare, officials counted large piles of ballots using gas lanterns and candles late into the night on Monday.

If required, Zimbabwe’s 5.6 million registered voters would be asked to return to the polls to vote in a presidential run-off on September 8.

Zimbabwe’s much-criticised election authority declared Tuesday that the vote had been free of rigging — even though the count was not yet completed.

“We are absolutely confident there was no rigging… we at the Zimbabwean Election Commission will not steal (the people’s) choice of leaders, we will not subvert their will,” said ZEC chair Priscilla Chigumba.

Mugabe, 94, whose authoritarian regime held power through violent, fraud-riddled elections, voted in Harare alongside his wife Grace after a surprise press conference at his home on Sunday at which he called for voters to reject ZANU-PF, his former party.

EU cites ‘shortcomings’

Once-banned European Union election observers, present for the first time in years, said participation appeared high but warned of possible problems in the polling process.

“There are shortcomings that we have to check. We don’t know yet whether it was a pattern,” EU chief observer Elmar Brok told AFP on Monday.

The bloc will deliver a preliminary report on the conduct of the election on Wednesday, as will the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the African Union teams.

Mnangagwa, Mugabe’s former right-hand man in ZANU-PF, was the clear election front-runner, benefitting from tacit military support, loyal state media and ruling party controls of government resources.

But Chamisa, 40, a lawyer and pastor who performed strongly on the campaign trail, sought to tap into the youth and urban vote.

He has repeatedly accused ZANU-PF and election authorities of trying to fix the result via a flawed electoral roll, ballot paper malpractice and voter intimidation.

The new government must tackle mass unemployment and an economy shattered by the seizure of white-owned farms under Mugabe, the collapse of agriculture, hyperinflation and an investment exodus.

Previously solid health and education services are in ruins, and millions have fled abroad to seek work.

Both candidates had vowed to clean up government and attract foreign investment to create jobs after the isolation and systematic corruption of the Mugabe era.

In 2008, then opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out of the presidential run-off against Mugabe after attacks orchestrated by the state claimed the lives of at least 200 of his supporters.

– AFP

Earlier

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) announced on Tuesday that it is completing the tallying of all ballot papers and will continue to announce electoral winners through the week.

Vote counting was still under way in some areas, while the verification process continued in other areas, the electoral body said.

It began its first press conference to announce the first round of constituency winners just after 4.30pm, announcing the results of seven members of parliament. Six of the seats went to Zanu-PF, with just one to the MDC-Alliance.

The presidential winner will only be announced once all tiers of government have been counted. The ZEC has said it expects this may only be finalised by Friday or Saturday at the latest.

The announcements are expected to continue for some time, as constituency winners are announced first.

Many commentators have interpreted the eagerness to begin announcements as a sign that Zanu-PF may have won the presidency, though MDC-Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa has remained confident.

His party was already preparing a court challenge to have the results released in order to avoid the weeks-long wait that occurred in 2008 when the MDC won, but with suspiciously not enough of the vote to avoid a run-off.

Julius Malema has predicted that the winner of the presidential seat has received 53% of the vote and that it would be Emmerson Mnangagwa, in favour of preserving the “status quo”.

Zanu-PF presidential candidate Mnangagwa had tweeted that the party’s representatives on the ground shared positive information about the outcome of Monday’s Zimbabwean election.

The successor of former president Robert Mugabe, who was removed from the presidency following military intervention last year, tweeted he was pleased by the high voter turnout.

It was reported that the ZEC had placed the voter turnout at 75%, in record territory. Millions of Zimbabweans cast their ballots at 10,000 polling stations.

“The information from our reps on the ground is extremely positive! Waiting patiently for official results as per the constitution,” Mnangagwa tweeted on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Mnangagwa’s opposition, Chamisa, tweeted his party had enjoyed a resounding victory after receiving results from more than 10 000 polling stations.

“We’ve done exceedingly well. Awaiting ZEC to perform their constitutional duty to officially announce the people’s election results and we are ready to form the next gvt,” the 40-year-old said.

Western diplomats and local observer groups have said the race remains too close to call. Citizen