Washington, DC — President Robert Mugabe won a commanding victory in last week's fundamentally flawed election, claiming 61 percent of the 3.5 million votes casts.
Manipulation of the voter rolls, the use of state resources to power the governing ZANU-PF party's machinery and an abbreviated period for campaigning all but ensured the election would be one the ruling party would win.
Reports of official malfeasance, before and during the balloting, have mounted in recent days. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change is challenging the results in court. But Mugabe is expected to be sworn in for a 7th term next week.
The United States and its European allies, including Zimbabwe's former colonial ruler the United Kingdom, have been compelled to watch from afar, barred from supporting local civil society groups working for a fair election and blocked from fielding observer teams.
There were no watchful delegations from the National Democratic Institute (NDI), the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), the International Republican Institute (IRI), the Carter Center or the European Union (EU).
Such scrutiny would have borne witness to Mugabe's charade.
U.S. Congress member Ed Royce, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, made a last-minute plea to the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and the African Union (AU) - the African institutions that were permitted to observe the vote:
"I urge SADC and the AU, the only election observers that haven't been banned, to be steadfast in their reporting, and to take into consideration not only the technical voting process on Election Day; but the actions of Mugabe and the ZANU-PF leading up to it. The people of Zimbabwe deserve a democratic process."
Royce closed his statement with a pessimistic prediction, "Sadly it looks like Mugabe, one of the longest serving dictators, will maintain his power at the expense of the democratic rights of the people of Zimbabwe."
While Africa has experienced a wide-spread democratic transformation, along with private-sector led economic growth, Zimbabwe has resisted the trend. Eighty-nine year old Mugabe has headed the government since 1980, relentlessly clinging to power. The ruling party has treated the nation's wealth as its own property to claim or distribute. Elective office has too often been treated as an inherent right, derived from winning the fight for independence, and unencumbered by a responsibility to govern inclusively.
As a direct consequence, despite the richness of its natural resources, the fertility of its soil, the mythic beauty of the country and the resilience of its people, the quality of life for Zimbabwe's citizens has been in precipitous decline - illiteracy, deaths of children under five, life expectancy, per capita income.
Mugabe has skillfully exploited what he portrays as western interference in Zimbabwe's affairs, defining the issue as us (Africans) versus them (western nations) – a stance that has resonated with a segment of the electorate over the years. The reality, however, is Mugabe and his cronies against other Zimbabweans.
At their best, election observers can be deterrence against vote rigging and intimidation during ballot casting. But when the groundwork for a managed outcome has been carefully laid, far in advance of election day, observers can provide false legitimacy to a corrupt process.
What happened at the polls was watched by SADC and the AU, as well as observers from a hand-picked group of permitted country representatives, including Russia, China, Cuba and Iran. Embassies in Harare, the capital, were allowed five observers each, nationwide.
Official African observers have declined to certify the vote as meeting the standards of a free and fair election. A SADC statement said it was too early to call the vote fair but commended Zimbabweans on a peaceful process. Botswana, Zimbabwe's neighbor, deployed 80 observers whose report questioned whether the "entire electoral process" and its final result could be judged "fair, transparent and credible"
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The African Union report raised "grave concerns" about the process, including integrity of voters rolls, the high incidence of would-be voters turned away at polling places and the security of ballots, but the AU has not yet issued a final determination about the vote.
As it celebrates 50 years as a pan-African institution, representing countries from the Mediterranean to the Cape of Good Hope, the African Union has a responsibility to see that its ideals are realized in the member states. The Zimbabwe election is a testing moment for the organization – to show that it can be a staunch advocate for good governance in the service of African progress.
K. Riva Levinson is the founder and managing director of KRL International LLC, a consultancy dedicated to work in the world's emerging markets. She has worked in Africa for more than 20 years.
