CLAIM: The provision has always been there but never invoked because there was CONFIDENCE Ruling Party Presidential Candidate would make it first round
SOURCE: Dr Walter Mzembi on Twitter
VERDICT: False
Following the proclamation of Zimbabwe’s 2023 election dates on 31 May 2023, former minister Walter Mzembi tweeted that ‘Pronouncing a Runoff date is a dumb move! It introduces the DOUBT of success in the 1st Round. The provision has always been there but never invoked because there was CONFIDENCE Ruling Party Presidential Candidate would make it first round’.
Credit: VOA
In the proclamation, President Emmerson Mnangagwa had indicated that 2 October will be the runoff date, if a runoff is needed.
A runoff happens if no candidate in the presidential poll reaches the majority threshold of 50% + 1 of votes cast.
The announcement of a runoff date is a legal requirement in terms of section 38(1)(a)(iii) of the Electoral Act, requiring the proclamation of a harmonised election date to include ‘iii)a day or days, not less than twenty-eight and not more than forty-two days after the polling day or last polling day, as the case may be, fixed in terms of subparagraph (ii), on which a runoff Presidential election shall be taken if such an election becomes necessary in terms of section 110(3)(f)(iii)’.
In his tweet, Mzembi claims that ‘the provision has always been there but never invoked’.
This is not true.
In the 2018 election proclamation, President Mnangagwa fixed the 8th of September 2018 as the date of the runoff, if it was required.
Similarly, in 2013 former President Robert Mugabe in the election proclamation fixed 11 September 2013 as the runoff date.
The requirement to include a runoff date in the proclamation was included in the Electoral Act after the 2008 elections which required a runoff.
In 2008, the harmonised elections were held on 29 March 2008, but it was not until 27 June 2008 that the runoff was held.
The law then provided for 21 days for such a presidential runoff to be conducted after the first election but the 2008 election was not straightforward. It was the first time in the history of elections in both pre- and post-independence Zimbabwe that the country was holding a runoff.
There was a five week delay in announcing the results of the first round presidential election held on 29 March; which was well beyond the 21 day timeline for holding the runoff election.
Election results for the 29 March presidential election were finally announced on 2 May. On 15 May 2008, the president announced the extension of a run off date from 21 days to 90 days after the announcement of results in a Statutory Instrument altering sections 39(2)(b) and 110(3) of the Electoral Act.
Conclusion
The claim by Mzembi, that ‘the provision (to announce a run off date with the harmonised election date) has always been there but never invoked because there was CONFIDENCE Ruling Party Presidential Candidate would make it first round’, has been rated as false. Following the confusion around the 2008 run off date, the provision has since become a legal requirement and it is not the first time that it has been followed. In 2018, President Mnangagwa pronounced a runoff date when he proclaimed the harmonised election date, as did his predecessor in 2013.
