IN a surprising turn of events, Freeman Chari, a member of the opposition-aligned group Pachedu, has admitted that claims of electoral fraud in last year’s harmonized elections were unfounded.
The elections saw President Emmerson Mnangagwa secure 52.6 percent of the vote, while Nelson Chamisa, leader of the opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), received 44 percent. Pachedu and other opposition groups had previously accused the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission of manipulating the results.
Chari revealed that after analyzing 84 percent of the V11 forms, which are used to collate election results, his findings aligned with the official results, showing President Mnangagwa with 52 percent of the vote. He also acknowledged that his analysis excluded votes from several ZANU PF strongholds in Mashonaland East, West, and Central provinces, suggesting that Mnangagwa’s actual margin of victory may have been even greater.
Chari’s admission has drawn criticism from political analysts, who argue that it exposes the duplicity of opposition activists who have questioned the credibility of the election without providing concrete evidence. This, they believe, may explain why Chamisa ultimately chose not to file an election petition challenging the results.
Chari further disclosed that Pachedu and other groups were aware that Chamisa had lost the election but chose not to disclose this to his supporters. They feared that admitting defeat would appear as an endorsement of what they had previously called “sham elections.” Instead, they hoped to push the opposition to boycott parliamentary and council elections, although some opposition members still chose to participate.
Before the 2023 harmonized elections, Pachedu had claimed to develop an app called Mandla, designed to help CCC supporters tabulate election results, locate polling stations, and identify legitimate party candidates. However, Chari, in a recent post on his X (formerly Twitter) handle, called for a shift towards honest conversations now that he had released their tabulated results, rather than continuing to make baseless claims of victory.
Critics, including educationist Dr. Augustine Tirivangana, have dismissed Chari’s recent statements as unremarkable, suggesting that Pachedu had always served as proxies for external influences and were now attempting to gain favor by changing their stance. Dr. Tirivangana pointed out that regional and international bodies, including the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), had already endorsed Zimbabwe’s election results and President Mnangagwa’s legitimacy.
Political analyst Dr. Brain Sedze suggested that Chari and Pachedu’s decision not to publish their findings earlier was an attempt to avoid alienating opposition supporters who had been led to believe that the elections were rigged. He speculated that Chari’s change of heart may be due to a loss of confidence in Chamisa’s ability to lead the opposition to victory, citing Chamisa’s lack of institutional support, coherent ideology, and respect for national symbols as significant obstacles.
Source: News Day