After taking over from ousted President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe six months ago, the country's new leader, Emmerson Mnangagwa, promised to hold free and fair elections this year. President Emmerson Mnangagwa has thus announced on Wednesday that Zimbabwe will hold its national elections on July 30th.
In his words he said:
"I am delighted to proclaim July 30 as the date for the 2018 harmonised elections. These elections will be free, fair and transparent, and the voice of the people will be heard. I call on all candidates to campaign peacefully and focus on the issues that really matter."
It will be the first election since the military forced Robert Mugabe out of office in what seemed to be an apparent coup in November last year.
Mnangagwa, who became the country's interim leader in November, said he looked forward to engaging with the people of Zimbabwe as campaigns begin. Although there had been concerns and speculations that he - Mnangagwa -- a septuagenarian known as the "Crocodile" for his political survival skills, could delay the vote to extend his stay in power.
Despite the fact that Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth in 2002 on the grounds that Mugabe, who had ruled the country since independence in 1980, rigged his re-election in 2002, Mnangagwa invited Commonwealth observers to monitor the country's elections to be held in July. Zimbabwe also applied to re-join the Commonwealth after its membership was withdrawn under former dictator Mugabe 15 years ago.
The election will be the first time since Zimbabwe achieved independence that Mugabe's name will not appear on the ballot.
Despite having once proclaimed that "only God will remove me", Mugabe resigned as president in November after lawmakers began impeachment proceedings against him.
With the death of Mugabe's longtime rival Morgan Tsvangirai, a former labour leader and prime minister, in February, the new election will pit Mnangagwa, 75, against numerous other opponents. They include Nelson Chamisa, 40, who replaced Tsvangirai as leader of the Movement for Democratic Change party.
"It is going to be a very difficult election. The governing ZANU-PF party and the Movement for Democratic Change have dominated primary elections in previous votes, but 120 sitting lawmakers from the two parties lost in the recent parliamentary primaries."- Ibbo Mandaza, a Zimbabwean political analyst and executive director of the Sapes Trust research institute in Harare, Zimbabwe's capital, said of the planned elections for president, the National Assembly and local councils.
Mnangagwa will face a big challenge from a rejuvenated Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) opposition previously led by the late Morgan Tsvangirai who are ratcheting up the pressure for him to create a free and fair electoral framework. Officials in the MDC claim Mnangagwa, with the help of the military, is plotting to rig the July 30 election amid claims that state media and the electoral body are not impartial.
Separately, there is mounting anger over the dismissal by the Constitutional Court of an application to have Zimbabweans resident in other African and around the world vote in this year’s election.This is significant given many Zimbabweans fled the country over the last two decades as the country’s political and economic structures collapsed under Mugabe. Only those Zimbabweans on national duty in other countries are eligible to vote.
Previous disputed elections have hurt the country's economy. Elections that Mugabe was accused of winning through unorthodox means drew the ire of Western countries, including the United States, which imposed economic sanctions on Zimbabwe.
"The July vote has the potential to help transform Zimbabwe's economy." said Tawanda Majoni, the national coordinator at the Information for Development Trust, a media advocacy group - provided that the result is not contested.
"If the ruling post-Mugabe establishment wins to form a government on its own, the results may be contested, meaning that the resulting government may lack legitimacy among key international powers and aid providers. If the opposition wins and the current government, in which the military has a high stake, accepts the outcome,"
He added that:
"this may also encourage international investors, development agencies and embassies to render substantial economic, social and political support to the new government.", Majoni said.