Democracy Put to the Test Ahead of Zimbabwe's August Polls

Both the ruling Zanu-PF and its main rival Citizens' Coalition for Change (CCC), are campaigning for the crucial Zimbabwe polls. On August 23, Zimbabweans will cast ballots to choose a president, council members and members of parliament.

Opposition parties have already voiced their concern about a free and fair election, accusing the incumbent President Emmerson Mnangagwa of silencing any dissenting opinions, while the EU has set credible violence-free elections as a precondition for the bloc to lift an 20-year-old embargo against Zimbabwe. The bloc will send a team of observers to oversee upcoming elections with a first contingent expected in July, 2023.

This will be the second time Mnangagwa and CCC leader Nelson Chamisa face each other. Five years ago, Mnangagwa received 50.8% of the vote in the first round. Unrest after the election resulted in the deaths of six people when security forces fired on protesters. Chamisa is anticipated to pose a serious threat to Mnangagwa. In spite of the Constitutional Court rejecting Chamisa's allegations of election manipulation, he barely lost to Mnangagwa in 2018.

A presidential runoff election, if necessary, was also set out for October 2 after the announcement through a government gazette. Mnangagwa is running for re-election after being elected president in 2018 following the military intervention that toppled the late former president Robert Mugabe in 2017. The southern African nation has only had two leaders since it gained independence from white minority rule in 1980.