Zimbabwe’s neighbors in southern Africa have for the first time publicly questioned the legitimacy of the country’s elections last week, after a vote that kept the governing party in power. President Emmerson Mnangagwa has brushed off the criticism. “Those who feel the race was not run properly should know where to go to complain,” he said.
Southern Africa has long prided itself on relative stability and on being generally free of the coups and terrorism that have plagued other parts of the continent. But Zimbabwe has been seen as a drag on the region, analysts say, with a decades-long economic and political crisis that has led to sanctions and isolation by the U.S. and other Western nations.
Details: The Southern African Development Community observer mission criticized voter intimidation in Zimbabwe, mismanagement by its electoral body and laws that restricted free speech.
