HARARE – Zimbabwe will have its next presidential elections between June and August in 2018. Zimbabwe has been a single party ruled country for many years.
The ruling party the Zimbabwean African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) that is led by Robert Mugabe has been leading since 1980.
The last elections that Zimbabwe had in July 2013 were contested by Morgan Tsvangirai the leader of the Movement of Democratic Change (MDC). ZANU-PF won the 2013 elections by 61.09%.
The 2018 elections will be strongly contested by not only MDC, but other opposing parties.
Zimbabwe’s electoral body confirmed that the number of political parties that have registers to contest the2018 elections has doubled.
Zimbabweans and the opposing parties are concerned that these elections might be rigged as those from previous years.
Corruption by the leading party has always been a concern that Africa and the rest of the world have when it comes to democratic elections in Zimbabwe.
Japan has donated one million dollars to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) to ensure free and fair elections. This donation should support the registrations process.
Every citizen should be registered to vote by the end of the year.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) needs to reassure Zimbabweans of a free and fair election at Zimbabwe’s 2018 polls.
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