Zimbabwe's Election: The Game's Begun.

Although let's be honest it never really stopped.

On Wednesday (31/7/13) Zimbabwe held it's general election for Parliament and the Presidency. Under election rules brought in following the violence that occured during the 2008 general election the results of the vote will not be known for five days. This means that the ballots cast have only just started to be counted so there is absolutely no way of knowing who has won the election or even how many questionable ballots have been cast.

This tiny detail hasn't stopped Morgan Tsvangirai the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change - Tsvangirai (MDC-T) attempting to whip his supporters up into a frenzy. In a press conference today Tsvangirai declared the election to be "A huge farce with its credibility marred by administrative violations which affect the legitimacy of its outcome." He went on to describe the election as a "Sham election that does not reflect the will of the people" before declaring that the MDC-T considers the election result to be "Null and void." These comments of course put Tsvangirai in direct violation of election rules that prevent participants commenting on the election in the time between the polls opening and the election results being declared. This rule was introduced following the 2008 election specifically to prevent participants inciting violence.

Tsvangirai's views on the election are most certainly not supported by the observer mission from the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Although they will continue to monitor the counting process the SADC observers declared the physical voting part of the election process to be "Peaceful, credible and efficient" while urging all parties to accept the result of the vote before praising the Zimbabwe Electoral Comission (ZEC) for the efficent way they conducted the election. Tsvangirai's views are also not shared by the observer mission from the African Union (AU) who described the voting process as "Peaceful, orderly, free and fair."

Even the infamous Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) have been struggling to find evidence to support Tsvangirai's position. In their preliminary report released today they found that election rules such as ballot boxes being empty before being sealed, voters having their names checked against the electoral roll before being allowed to vote and having their fingers marked with indelible ink after voting were followed at 99-100% of polling stations.

If you are unfamiliar with ZESN they are an umbrella organisation made up of various community action and women's rights groups who are organised and funded by the UK and white farmers who Mugabe expelled from the country. In 2008 they played a central role in inciting the violence that followed the election by making a series of utterly false claims. For example they initially claimed that Tsvangirai had won over 50% of the vote meaning there would be no need for a run-off vote. This was later proved to be totally untrue and ZESN withdrew their comment.

As it is very much their mission to overthrow Mugabe by any means ZESN seem to have completely disregarded their own report in their public comments on the election saying that it cannot be passed off as being free and fair. Their main evidence in support of these is that are 49% of polling stations 25 people or more were refused the right to vote simply because they weren't on the list of registered voters or that some of the polling stations in this dirt poor country were not wheelchair accessible.

Obviously I will try to avoid commenting on this election further until the results have been announced and there is something to comment on. However from Tsvangirai's political play I think that the election has probably been free, fair and credible and that Mugabe has most likely won.

(Originally Posted) 19:50 on 1/8/13.