A blow to Zimbabwe

At a time when Zimbabwe is in desperate need of political stability, the images of troops being deployed on the streets to confront protesters is not encouraging. Supporters of the MDC opposition alliance are frustrated: they claim the elections have been rigged in favour of the ruling Zanu-pf. In the run-up to the country’s first presidential, parliamentary and local elections since the removal of dictator Robert Mugabe in a military coup last November, expectations had been running high among MDC supporters that the contest would result in victory for the party’s candidate, 40-year-old Nelson Chamisa.

These hopes appeared to have been dashed, though, when the early results showed that Zanu-pf had won two-thirds of the parliamentary seats. Nor was the situation helped by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission’s decision to delay the release of the presidential result, leading to fears that the ruling Zanu-pf was trying to fix the result in favour of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who replaced Mr Mugabe in last year’s coup.

The resulting violence, in which people were killed during clashes in the capital Harare, is deeply regrettable, not least because, with these elections, Zimbabwe needs to demonstrate it is turning its back on the repression and brutality that came to define the Mugabe era. If the country is to stand any chance of economic regeneration after decades of woeful misrule, then Zimbabwe must show that it is genuinely making a fresh start, one that is not tainted with the corruption of the past. Otherwise it is highly unlikely that the large foreign investment the country desperately needs will be forthcoming.