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Following Zimbabwe’s Tense Vote, Will Mnangagwa Make Good on Reform Promises?

Following Zimbabwe’s Tense Vote, Will Mnangagwa Make Good on Reform Promises?
An opposition party supporter throws a rock aimed at a campaign poster for Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa, Harare, Zimbabwe, Aug. 1, 2018 (AP photo by Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi).

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, WPR Senior Editor Robbie Corey-Boulet curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent.

Ahead of this week’s elections in Zimbabwe, Simon Allison noted in an in-depth report for WPR that the ruling party, ZANU-PF, has been “pitching itself as the party of change” despite having run the country since it attained independence in 1980. In the immediate aftermath of the vote, it appears the world will get to see what exactly the party means by “change,” though the events of recent days offer several reasons to be pessimistic.

On Friday morning, officials announced that ZANU-PF’s candidate, Emmerson Mnangagwa, had won Monday’s presidential race. Mnangagwa is a longtime ally of Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s founding president who ruled until last November, when Mnangagwa and top military officials forced him out. Earlier in the week, results showed that ZANU-PF had won 145 out of 210 seats in parliament.

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