Is Mnangagwa already rigging the elections?

President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who was former president Robert Mugabe’s elections director, may have started rigging the coming elections if Movement for Democratic Change secretary-general Douglas Mwonzora is to be believed.

Mwonzora says the biometric voter registration mop-up exercise, which started on 10 January and ends on 8 February, has put more registration centres in Mnangagwa’s,  Chiwenga’s and Mohadi’s provinces.

Constantino Chiwenga and Kembo Mohadi are Mnangagwa’s deputies.

Mnangagwa has not announced the election dates yet but he has promised free, fair, credible and transparent elections arguing that this is the only way Zimbabwe can move forward politically and economically.

Mugabe’s nephew, Patrick Zhuwao, one of the G40 kingpins now in exile says Mnangagwa cannot win a free and fair election and would be lucky to walk away with 15 percent of the vote.

His colleague Jonathan Moyo has also said Mnangagwa  is afraid of elections and has called on the international community to remove Mnangagwa otherwise Zimbabwe will turn into another Somalia.

Mnangagwa is currently serving the remainder of Mugabe’s term and is keen to get his own mandate.

He is pinning his hopes on turning around the country’s economy and creating much needed jobs.

Investors seem to be warming up to the new president but this now needs to translate into real projects and real jobs.

Mnangagwa’s spokesman George Charamba said elections might be held much sooner than most people expect, but legal think tank Veritas Zimbabwe says that the earliest elections can be held under the new constitution is 23 July.

Reports today said the elections could be held in four or five months.

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