The Court of Appeal’s (CoA) judgment to prevent the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) from observing and monitoring the voters’ registration period raised eyebrows but rigging fears have gained momentum since 2019 with some sections of the society dismissing it as nothing but a conspiracy theory by the opposition. The opposition, especially the UDC believes the only way they are going to lose the upcoming election is if the process is rigged. The Zimbabwe trip has now unleashed a wave of social media posts from members of the opposition.
The IEC’s decision to benchmark from a country that is known for not upholding democratic electoral standards has opened up a constellation of vote-rigging allegations which now feeds the opposition’s theories of stolen-election claims. Now the IEC benchmarking exercise in Zimbabwe wakes up a sleeping giant as the opposition is taken back to 2019 when they sought to overturn the outcome of the election.
