Zanu-PF wary of expatriates voting in historic election
ZANU-PF under former president Robert Mugabe resisted the diaspora vote in general elections and his successor‚ Emmerson Mnangagwa‚ is seeking to perpetuate the same standpoint.
With Mnangagwa at the helm‚ Zimbabwe’s ruling party has taken a somewhat calmer stance in dealing with opposition politicians but continues to skirt around electoral reforms.
Early last month, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister Sibusiso Moyo‚ while in the UK on a diplomatic mission‚ made conflicting statements about the diaspora vote.
In an interview with Bloomberg TV‚ Moyo said the government was working round the clock to make sure Zimbabweans scattered all over the world could cast their votes in the coming historic elections.
However‚ low down in his statement, he said‚ “legally and logistically this is not possible”.
Zanu-PF sources said that allowing the diaspora vote would be suicidal for the party because there were more than two million Zimbabweans outside the country and half of those were probably of voting age.
“The current voters’ roll has over five million registered voters and if the foreign-based [voters] in their hordes cast ballots they can make a serious difference‚ because most of them are overseas and they blame the party under Mugabe for economic ruin,” a ruling party source said.
“They feel the new dispensation is really trying to turn around the country’s fortunes but still they have deep mistrust in Zanu-PF.”
Professor Philani Moyo, from Fort Hare University, added that if the diaspora vote was allowed‚ Zanu-PF would likely “meet its electoral baptism”.
“Zanu-PF fears a backlash from these diasporans. Some diasporans left the country fearing for their lives as they had been physically tortured or harassed by Zanu-PF rogue elements simply because they were members or supporters of the opposition‚” he said.
But UK-based analyst Innocent Batsani Ncube‚ of the Democracy and Elections Research Centre at the University of London‚ said Zanu-PF’s blend of politics made it feel it could not get votes in the diaspora.
“It’s untested terrain‚ and Zanu-PF relies not on rational voter appeal but a commandist network voter mobilisation method.”
Ncube argued that for Zanu-PF‚ it was a case of sticking to what had worked for it because elections were not for experimental purposes.
“There is strong possibility for [people of] the diaspora who are living in more liberal settings to influence public opinion discourse, [swaying the traditionally inward-looking voters]‚” he said.
Meanwhile‚ as the country inches closer to the general election‚ Zanu-PF on Sunday embarked on its own primary elections.
As results started trickling in yesterday some of the party’s heavyweights such as Mnangagwa’s special adviser‚ Christopher Mutsvanga‚ and close ally‚ Manicaland Minister of State Oppah Muchinguri‚ fell by the wayside in what has been widely viewed as a chaotic exercise.
Mnangagwa conceded that the primary elections were not going according to plan‚ referring to them as “teething problems” in the post-Mugabe era.