Will the military really give in if they lose coming elections?

Should ZANU-PF win the harmonised elections, Chiwenga will be perfectly positioned to succeed Mnangagwa in 2023, and complete a pseudo-democratic power transfer to the benefit of the armed forces.

Before the coup, Chiwenga made it clear that ZANU-PF, the state, and the army remain inseparable, when he said, "When it comes to matters of protecting our revolution, the military will not hesitate to step in."

When Chiwenga made this now famous statement of extrajudicial intent, which allegedly justified the need for armed intervention, and inadvertently surmised how conservative and unstable Zimbabwe's democracy really is, about 90 high-ranking ZDF officers backed their chief.

So the self-styled protectors of the "revolution" Chiwenga referred to could always resurface, if a political party like the MDC-T, led by 40-year-old Nelson Chamisa, wins the presidential elections later this year.

The army made similar threats in 2002, before a hotly contested presidential election, as well as in the run-up to the disputed and violent 2008 elections, which were held amid shocking economic conditions.

Which is why, until comprehensive electoral, media and security sector reforms are enacted and followed to the letter of the law by state actors, and voters can enjoy the benefits of an unhindered democracy and partake in truthfully free and fair elections, Zimbabwe will continue to face the risk of becoming the Southern African version of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi's Egypt: a modern dictatorship wrought with repressed freedoms, political instability and never-ending destitution.

By Tafi Mhaka for Al Jazeera

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