Zimbabweans have spoken through their vote.
Respect our wish. Whoever is given the mandate is carrying our wish.
Having gotten wind that ZANU PF and President Mnangagwa were romping to victory through tallies from polling stations and the confirmation through the party’s Treasurer Patrick Chinamasa’s press conference, the European Union decided to throw the kitchen sink at the whole process by roping in the SADC Observer Mission head, Nevers Mumba to scuttle the ruling party’s victory.
Mumba has exposed his mission and revealed that he is a biased observer.
Politically biased election observation ignores common standards and good practices of international election reflections as defined in relevant basic documents.
The mission of biased observers is to whitewash electoral credibility for domestic and international audiences.
This is done so that the whole electoral process is discredited by the international community.
Unfortunately, SADC has been used to discredit and weaken the institution of free and fair elections in Zimbabwe.
What Mumba did is bad and surely a mere effort to subvert findings of credible elections held in Zimbabwe.
It is a shame that Mumba chaired the respected observation mission to shame.
This was done as a means to weaken the political clout ZANU PF had gained.
The detractors used SADC to build networks of influence against the Zimbabwean Government.
The Mumba led observers lacked credible and transparent methodologies for election processes.
These observers do not want to admit that their activities and conclusions are limited in scope and meant to please their handlers.
It was clear that the Mumba team was quick to make personal comments, especially on the election day, about their observation or conclusions to the media to justify their shortcomings.
The missions to which they belong did not publish preliminary or final reports informing about methodology, findings, conclusions and recommendations of the observation.
Clearly Mumba has political, economic or other conflicts of interest that would interfere with conducting observations accurately and impartially.
It appears Mumba had a hidden agenda or was working towards pleasing some political actors outside the country holding elections or organisations related to those political actors.
Mumba has experience of participating in earlier past biased observation missions.
He has always had ties with Morgan Tsvangirai and Mmusi Maimane who are white boys’ messengers and have an axe to grind with ZANU PF.
Mumba misled the people as he reported that there were shortages of ballot papers only in Harare and Bulawayo when the challenge was experienced in other provinces such as Mashonaland Central and Manicaland.
This is a glaring attempt to give impression that Chamisa’s supporters were sabotaged when this was not the case. The shortage of the ballot papers was not deliberate or targeted at certain provinces.
International election monitors strive to uphold norms, but their assessments are not always as depoliticised as envisioned.
This criticism is not new, but it has hitherto always been anecdotal.
There were reports of intimidation by FAZ. Mumba never spoke to FAZ or its alleged victims who were said to be intimidated.
If 97 percent of the polling stations were in order is that enough to condemn the whole election.
US’ last election experienced ballot paper shortages and yet Biden was not condemned.
We go it alone.
Invitation was courtesy not an offer for people to come and subvert the will of Zimbabweans or to review our laws.
The way Britain and US is supporting SADC report stinks to high heaven. It is well choreographed script hatched by West using Zambia’s friends of America.
If Mbare and parts of Harare and Bulawayo vote for ED is it FAZ again forcing them.
Mumba’s aim is a diplomatic warfare as we compete for investors. Stability brings and create competition on them. How can a report contain some hearsay statements?
There is too much street talk in Mumba’s report.
Observer bias is the tendency of observers to not see what is there, but instead to see what they expect or want to see.
Observer bias is one of the types of detection bias and is defined as any kind of systematic divergence from accurate facts during observation and the recording of data and information to satisfy an already forgone conclusion.
The definition can be further expanded to include the systematic difference between what is observed due to variation in observers, and what the true value is.
Election observation is a valuable tool for improving the quality of elections.
Observers help build public confidence in the transparency of electoral processes.
Observation can help promote and protect the civil and political rights of participants in elections.
It can lead to the correction of errors or weak practices, even while an election process is still under way.
It can deter manipulation and fraud, or expose such problems if they do occur.
When observers can issue positive reports, it builds trust in the democratic process and enhances the legitimacy of the governments that emerge from elections.
Election observation by domestic groups encourages civic involvement in the political process.
Following elections, reports and recommendations by observer groups can lead to improvements in national law and practice.
But the Mumba has made the situation less.
The idea of having been opposition in your country does not mean you have to bring activism in our country.
Mumba has shamed SADC and his bias has blinded his purpose. He has descended into the arena and got blinded by the dust of the event.
By Dr Masimba Mavaza
