Zimbabwe held fair elections, it’s time to lift sanctions, Mnangagwa tells world leaders at UN

The free, fair and credible elections mantra is unfortunate. The rejection of the election results by international observer missions makes it difficult to say we stand by the results and we will ignore the observers. Continuing to attack SEOM ignores the AU, EU, Commonwealth etc reports.
The issues pointed out are real. Just to mention a few:
1. It is true that there was no voters roll done on time. The CCC had to go to court to try and get the voters roll on the last minute. How does one prepare for an election without a voters roll that can be verified by all candidates?
2. The SEOM report notes the shambolic voting in Harare, Bulawayo and Manicaland. It is not a myth that the ballot papers are said to have been on print on 23 August 2023. That happened when ZEC had assured all and sundry that the ballot papers had been dispatched to various stations countrywide. The printing of the ballots had been an issue and ZEC assured the nation that it was ready. The extension into the night was unrealistic in a country lacking street lights and where crime is rife in the dark hours of the night. Waiting to vote at night was a risk to lives and limbs. Any opening of polling stations outside voting hours was an illegality. That was not what had been gazetted as election times and dates. More importantly, it has to be noted that voters budget time to vote and they are not expected to spend all their time in queues when nothing is happening. Many a voter will just walk away. This was the a way by ZEC to discourage voters from voting and many walked away. For some voters, it is shocking that the voting was to be done the following day. There was no communication of this save through the unpopular ZBC and not to the voter who was in a queue already for the whole day.
3.Names appeared at different polling station far from the residence of the voters. There was no notification of the shuffling of the names from the nearest polling stations. When one got to a polling station, one was not told where the name was. One had to check at other polling stations in the ward. That also certainly discouraged voters from voting. The deliberate misleading of opposition voters was clear. The misleading information only prevalent in urban areas and other areas where the CCC had had strong showing during the time it was MDC Alliance. The deliberate way of disenfranchising voters was primitive and visible to all.
4. It is common cause that the police were very heavy handed on rallies that were supposed to be held by the CCC. It was like a war zone with strict timelines and conditions for rallies. The system was simply meant to silence the CCC voice especially in areas that ZANU had strong propaganda and wanted people to hear no alternative. Yet free campaigns augur well for free and fair elections.
5. Talk about state media. This was a propaganda arm of ZANU period. They were totally negative to the CCC’s message. They were desperate to find negative aspects including the laughable rumours that the CCC president was unfaithful to his marriage as if citizens do not know which candidate was unfaithful to the institution of marriage.
6. Talk of taking statistics upon voting by an affiliate of a party masquerading as a non governmental organisation simply shows that ZANU was desperate and could not even hide its desperation. That is why ZANU is defending FAZ. FAZ was intimidating voters even at registration centres well before the voting was due. They took voters’ names and phone numbers immediately after voters registered. They phoned voters and told them that if ZANU lost there would be war. At the end, they set up tables within the polling areas. In fact they surrounded the polling stations from all roads that led to the polling station. Voters would pass at the table on the way to vote and on the way back. Statistics should come from the ZEC polling officers. Results are statistics not an affiliate of a party. Thus FAZ had an impact in election trends, especially where people could easily be intimidated.
7. Talk of the courts. The SEOM report was totally right in pointing out that loans of US$400 000.00 were not good for an independent judiciary. Courts should not only do justice but seen to do so. The decisions made on the CCC 12 by the Supreme Court has been touted as showing independence of the judiciary. Far from it. The decisions from the 2017 coup onwards have been skewed in favour of ZANU. The courts said rolling tanks into Central Harare and the ZBC and the capture of the President were not a coup. The same courts have even said that ZEC did not need to produce V11s to show how the ZANU leader won the elections. Proper justice demanded a full audit of the V11s and a comparison of the ones produced by ZEC with those in the hands of the contesting parties. Having refused to do that in the previous elections of 2018 made it clear that even now ZEC could successfully suck a figure from the thumb and that would be accepted as the correct figure. So token decisions in favour of the CCC on the Bulawayo 12 does not in any way water down the mistrust of the citizens in so far as the judiciary is concerned.
8. The talk about the SEOM report asking for laws to be changed is also unrealistic. That is not what the report says. The report says your laws say this and you did the opposite. The Patriotic Bill which was touted as having been signed into law by the ZANU leader in his capacity as President of the country was intimidatory and a full disregard of freedom of expression. The NGO Act was also a closure of space for any opposition of ZANU.
9. Who does not know that ZANU wants observer missions that see no evil and hear no evil. It is as well that the SEOM report says the truth that was observed on the ground. The fact that the Mutsvangwas and Marapiras of this world talk about Dr Mumba as if it is his personal report is not more than a sign of desperation on the part of ZANU. Nobody has pointed out a lie in the SEOM report and other reports. It is but desperation by people who thought SEOM would buy into the tired and old fashioned sanctions song. ZANU wants to look like a victim when it is actually the villain and affecting the whole region.
10. If the election did not meet the regional and international standards it was no election at all. It was a charade and SADC should not babysit ZANU. If ZANU wants to defy regional and international observations, so be it. If SADC changes its report it would be discredited and destroyed. For what? For dictators who only tell us that they were involved in war more than four decades ago. The war among other things was for one man one vote. The citizens have a right to chose their leaders without fear of going back to a war that was not even won but came out of the negotiations that were done with the Rhodesia Front lead by Ian Douglas Smith.
11. Let there be a proper election or leave ZANU isolated by going it alone without the regional and international bodies. South Africa and Botswana will continue to suffer from the melt down of Zimbabwe for as long as they stifle democracy in that forsaken country.

You say it all Mr. Moyo !!!!!

Liar. Mnangagwa I will remind the world that the elections were neither free nor fair. Sanctions will remain in place. Mnangagwa you are an evil man, you are a worse dictator than Mugabe.