Zimbabwe court upholds presidential results; candidate from Kamloops not surprised

Aug 24, 2018 | 9:46 AM

KAMLOOPS — Disappointed but not surprised.

That’s the reaction of Kamloops resident Richard Kanyangu to the Zimbabwe’s Constitutional Court decision today to uphold last month’s election results.

Kanyangu ran unsuccessfully for a House of Assembly seat in Zimbabwe.

The upheld results mean Emmerson Mnangagwa remains president. It was the country’s first election since long-time president Robert Mugabe was ousted from office last year after nearly 40 years in office.

The opposition MDC Alliance had argued the election results were fraudulent, but to no avail. Kanyangu alleges the court is not independent.

“High court judges are appointed by the ruling party, after 38 years of one party,” he says, noting it was obvious to him the results were “rigged.”

“Why? Because you have some constituencies or polling stations where you’d have 500 people registered to vote but then you’d turn out with 600 people having voted and you’d ask yourself, where did the other 100 people come from?”

Kanyangu says it’s a trend that was prevalent nationwide, though prior to voting day things looked more promising than they had in the past.

“There is definitely a change in terms of what was happening before the coup. There was a lot of freedom for us to actually go out and campaign and do our work,” he says.

“The challenge was we were limited to what we could do on the ground (and) we didn’t have access to the media and other ways of getting to the larger population.”