President Emmerson Mnangagwa
By Dickson Bandera
President Mnangagwa has urged political contestants of the forthcoming 2023 General Elections to accept defeat if they happen to lose in the plebiscite scheduled for the 23rd of August 2023.
Writing in his weekly article published in the state media, Mnangagwa, who will be seeking a second presidential term, said “true democrats are magnanimous winners and good losers”.
He said contestants should know that there is more than one possible outcome in the election and it will be improper to only expect a win.
“One cannot enter an electoral contest for just one outcome, namely, an outcome in which one is only a winner. Surely, that is not the frame of mind helpful to a free and fair election; rather, it is one for war,” he said.
“In any event, our rich democracy provides recourse — peaceful recourse — to anyone who might have reason to feel hard done by the whole electoral process,” he added.
Mnangagwa urged contestants to respect the court outcomes, when the courts hand down judgements regarding election petitions.
“We have the courts. That recourse must be pursued and exercised to the fullest. Once that has been done, and our courts have come to some determination, their judgment must be respected by all, winners and losers alike, so our whole society speedily resets for a peaceful conclusion, and moves forward.
“That is the Zimbabwe we want, and must work towards, namely, a country that quickly rallies back after any contest, to resume deep and encompassing routines for peace and development, all done in unity,” said the president.
Mnangagwa and Chamisa are expected to square off in the 23 August 2023 election which is expected to draw a huge turnout, with almost 6 million voters having registered to vote, according to the figures released by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC).
This will be the second time that the two will compete, having competed in the 2018 election where Mnangagwa emerged a winner with a 50.8 percent against Chamisa’s 44.3%.
After the 2018 election, the then 40 year old Chamisa went on to challenge the outcome, claiming that the figures according to his agents had shown his MDC-Alliance win with a wider margin, but ZEC had tampered with the figures to favour ZANU PF.
In a Constitutional Court case that drew interest from across the globe, Chief Justice Luke Malaba with other eight constitutional judges dismissed Chamisa’s petition and Mnangagwa was sworn in as president.
The 2023 election campaign season has already started and in less than three weeks, the Nomination Court will sit, on June 21, to consider and accept candidates in the forthcoming Presidential, parliamentary and municipal elections.
August 3 has been set as the day on which Provincial Assemblies of Chiefs shall meet to elect chiefs who will take up seats in the revered Council of Chiefs.
