Middle East & Africa | Déjà vu 

Concerns of corruption mar Zimbabwe’s chaotic election

The shenanigans of the ruling party suggest it fears the opposition’s popularity 

TOPSHOT-ZIMBABWE-POLITICS-ELECTION
Image: Getty Images
|HARARE AND MUTASA

One of the few things still manufactured in Zimbabwe is support for the ruling party. “Zanu-pf has used all the old tactics and some new ones as well,” said Happy Bangwayo, an unemployed voter outside a polling station in Harare, the capital, on August 23rd. Ballots should have arrived by 7am on election day. But in the poor urban areas that are strongholds of the Citizens Coalition for Change (ccc), the main opposition party, papers were not delivered until late in the afternoon.

This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Déjà vu ”

From the August 26th 2023 edition

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