WHY MDC ALLIANCE LOST THE ELECTIONS
The elections in Zimbabwe have come and gone and just like in any contest, there had to be a winner and a loser. In this instance, Zanu PF emerged victorious after capturing 145 out of the 210 parliamentary seats with the closest rival, the MDC Alliance capturing 63 seats. The other three seats were won by the National Patriotic Front, and two by independents. In the Presidential elections, Emmerson Mnangagwa won with 2 460 463 votes, (50.8%) to Nelson Chamisa’s 2 147 436 votes (44.3 %). Touted as the most peaceful poll in post-independent Zimbabwe, the elections and have since been endorsed by SADC, COMESA, AU Observer Missions, the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) among other Observer groups. Although in its interim report released on 1 August 2018, the EU observer mission was rather critical of the playing field not being level in terms of fair access to state broadcasting for all parties, they too stated that “The campaign was largely peaceful, with freedoms of mo