‘Harsh response awaits you,’ Zimbabwean leader warns against poll chaos

By Brian Okoth

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa has warned those planning electoral violence that the government will deal with them in a “harsh” manner.

His remarks come a few days after he announced that Zimbabwe’s general election will be held on August 23.

He also set October 2 as the run-off date should the presidential election end with no clear winner in the first round of voting.

Mnangagwa will be seeking another five-year term after the ruling party, Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF), in October 2022 endorsed him for re-election in this year’s polls.

In his weekly column published in Zimbabwean newspaper, The Sunday Mail, on June 4, President Mnangagwa warned that electoral violence won’t be tolerated.

“I urge all other players in our electoral process to make the same pledge and to be sworn to unconditional peace for our nation. Let me sternly warn those bent on political violence that a harsh response awaits them,” he said.

“We consider political violence a challenge to the whole state, in which case all levers of the state: the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary must act in concert, and with a strong, unflinching sense of shared resolve and common purpose to stamp it out,” he added.

According to the president, everything needs to be done to address poll violence, including setting up “special courts for the speedy trial of those accused of perpetrating or instigating poll violence”.

Mnangagwa is expected to face off against opposition candidate Nelson Chamisa of the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) party.

On June 21, the country’s nomination court will receive the names of candidates for presidential, parliamentary and local authority elections.

Presidential candidates will have their applications reviewed by the Nomination Court in the capital Harare.

Estimates show that as of May 31, 2023 there were some 6.1 million voters in Zimbabwe, a country of more than 15 million people.

The voters’ register will, however, be cleaned ahead of the August polls.

The opposition, led by CCC party, has called for an urgent audit of the register, saying some voters’ names were missing, while others had their voting stations changed.

An MP of the CCC party, David Coltart, said he was among those whose names were missing from the voters’ roll.

He, however, later tweeted that he had traced his name to a polling station far away from where he had registered.

The electoral agency has pledged to correct the errors in good time.