Zimbabwe’s prime minister declared the country’s election a "farce" Thursday after widespread reports of urban voters unable to cast ballots appeared to give the upper hand to longtime President Robert Mugabe.
Several election observers and civil society groups raised alarms about attempts to deter voter registration and mobilization efforts well before Wednesday’s election. Those fears were confirmed with unverified reports of more than 1 million urban voters turned away from polling stations.
Zimbabweans were denied the chance to vote at 82 percent of urban polling stations because their names were either not on the rolls or they chose the wrong ward, compared to only 38 percent of rural polling stations, according to a statement by the Zimbabwe Election Support Network.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party typically draws the majority of its support from urban areas.
"This has been a huge farce," Tsvangirai said. "In our view, that election is null and void."
Mugabe has yet to respond publicly to Tsvangirai’s accusations, but officials with Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union–Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party insist he won in a landslide. Zimbabwe’s Electoral Commission is expected to issue official results by Monday.
Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since the country’s independence from Britain in 1980, formed a unity government with Tsvangirai in 2008 after the president’s initial election loss prompted a violent response from state security forces resulting in hundreds of deaths. Human rights advocacy groups have denounced the Mugabe regime’s authoritarian rule, including the arbitrary beating and detention of opposition leaders.
While reports suggest conditions at the polls were generally peaceful, a video posted Wednesday appeared to document evidence of voter fraud. The video showed youth voting in Mount Pleasant after they were bused in from undisclosed rural areas.
Western election observers were barred from entering the country to monitor the process, leaving the task to organizations such as the African Union and the Southern African Development Community.
Those groups "have used the relative violence we saw [in 2008] as the gold standard for elections," Jeffrey Smith, advocacy officer for the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, told the Washington Free Beacon. "Just because there is a peaceful election does not mean it’s a credible, free, and fair election."
Smith, who works closely with civil society leaders and human rights activists in Zimbabwe, said economic troubles persist in a country that experienced hyperinflation and unemployment above 80 percent before scrapping its currency and adopting the U.S. dollar in 2009.
The education system is in "shambles," with children lacking books and classrooms, he said. Suburban areas have gone for days without running water and suffered cholera outbreaks in recent years, as well as perpetual food shortages.
Smith said the U.S. government would likely not deviate from its "action for action" sanctions policy in Zimbabwe, but that civil society groups in the country require continued support.
"To them it matters not who is in power as long as they represent their constituents," he said. "Unfortunately over the last 33 years one man has been in power. The facts speak for themselves."