ZESN Report on the 31 July 2013 Harmonised Elections Some have argued that it was not fraud that cost the MDC parties their seats and votes in the presidential election. According to those who hold these views, the MDC-T lost through failure to perform in the Government of National Unity (GNU). Contributing factors cited include the MDC-T party president being consumed with his own personal life and the party’s failure to strengthen its party base during the life of the GNU. On the other hand, ZANU-PF is said to have used this time to strengthen its structures on the ground and to repair the damage caused in 2008 by mobilising its supporters and members to register and to go and vote. In this regard there are certainly lessons for political parties in terms of effective voter mobilisation. Mostly however, observers have noted that the MDCs must not have participated in elections given the flaws that it had identified in the electoral process and should have waited until electoral reforms had been completed particularly the cleaning and overhauling of the voters’ roll. Outside of the three-party contest, the election results also showed that to a large extent, Zimbabwe is not really a multi-party state, but more of a dual party state. More than 17 parties contested the elections, but only two won any competitive seats. Even Welshman Ncube’s MDC-N failed to garner any seats, suggesting that the future of Zimbabwean politics, at least for the moment, is purely bi-partisan. Incidentally, the only independent candidate to win a seat (Jonathan Samkange in Mudzi constituency) was a disgruntled former ZANU-PF member who ran against his party’s wishes. Other candidates contested on the party ticket without the party’s endorsement, also won. These include for example Arnold Tsunga (MDC-T) and Munyaradzi Kereke (ZANU-PF). The proportional representation has watered down the duality however, as the MDC-N, which failed to gain any seats in the first-past-thepost system, managed to gain some seats under the women’s quota system, as well as two in the Senate. A worrying factor with regard to the results was the non-acceptance of these results by key political players and arguably by significant proportions of the public. Whilst there are certainly glaring problems with the electoral process, sufficient to question the final outcome, there are also very high levels of mistrust and suspicion between the key electoral stakeholders. With the successive contested polls in the recent past, it would appear that the public has also lost faith in the process, resulting in extra scrutiny of the elections. This could also be the reason why some people did not vote. Another area of concern is the fact that assessments of the election differed between different groups. Whist observers, such as the AU and SADC, assessed the election as free and peaceful; they did not proclaim them as being fair. Others accepted the process and congratulated the victors. Some questioned the electoral process and rejected the outcome as not being a true reflection of the will of the people. 72 | P a g e