by Anesu Pedzisayi

MDC Alliance leader, Nelson Chamisa has received condemnation from human rights activists in the United States of America, for causing violence that took place in Harare two days after the harmonised elections that were conducted on 30 July 2018.

Addressing a march organised in support of President Emmerson Mnangagwa in New York City, human rights lawyer, Roger Wareham, who was also part of the elections observer during the harmonised elections, said Chamisa pre-empted the election results because he knew he was going to lose the polls.

Describing how the events unfolded on the day of the violent protests, Wareham said Chamisa failed to acknowledge that he had lost the elections because he did not have the popular vote and incited his followers to demonstrate.

“Before the first vote was cast, he said that, if I don’t win this election it was rigged. Sounds familiar, isn’t that something Trump said, if I don’t win this election it was rigged.

“So Chamisa said if don’t win this election, this is before the day the election started, if I don’t win, you know it has been rigged. He was stalking his people to prepare them for what really was going to happen, because he was going to lose the election, because ZANU PF has the support of the people,” he said.

Wareham also accused Chamisa for intoxicating his supporters who then took to the streets, burned down buildings and causing violence in Harare Central Business District, (CBD).

“So when the election results came in, and ZANU PF had two thirds of the parliamentary vote, the equivalent of the Congress in the United States, and President Mnangagwa earned 50.6 percent of the vote, and instead of accepting that, Chamisa told his people that he has been rigged.

“He got a lot of young people and supplied them with liquor and got them stalked up, and the next day, they totally turned loose, they started burning buildings, throwing stones in Harare and the Government responded to end that, and the story became, the Government has overreacted. And the fact that Government has reacted does not mean the elections were not free and fair. One had nothing to do with the other,” he said.

Chamisa has continuously denied inciting his party supporters for causing the violence, suggesting that people were defending their vote. However, Chamisa had earlier on addressed his party supporters, urging them to demonstrate if the election result was not favourable to him. Chamisa also promised to make the country ungovernable, and has been defying the Con-Court ruling that gave legitimacy to President Mnangagwa’s Presidential win.