On 13 June, Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe announced that elections were to be held 31 July. On the same day, Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai rejected this announcement as unconstitutional, and stating that he would not accept Zimbabweans being “railroaded” into “another illegitimate election.”

We shared this information with our subscribers, and asked them to share their opinions with us.

About two-thirds of respondents agreed with the Prime Minister, suggesting that the July 31 date was too sudden, and that it did not allow adequate time for the necessary reforms and legal process to be followed. Around a quarter said the President was right, and were eager for Zimbabwe to hold elections and move forward. And around a tenth of respondents were of mixed opinion, wanting to wait for SADC to step in and comment, or more concerned that elections simply be non-violent, free and fair, regardless of when they are held.

As a few examples, messages in support of Tsvangirai’s position included:

• How can he do dat alone .enough tyme is needed reform first
• They want 2 prolong their stay in power to loot more.NO TO 31/07/06 ELECTIONS whats the rush for
• Mugabe shouldn’t declare election date .Zimbabwe new constitution says election is set amoung the principals
• Hazviite Reforms first what’s the rush about?
• Thus grossly unfair to many zimbabwean given the scenario in media and electoral sides which need reforms, PM is right

Messages in favour of a 31 July election included:

• We are sick and tired we want election today
• Elections ar overdue, & we’re ready as voters. The economy is suffering. MT must accept the date & prepare.
• All we need are nuetral observers. Other issues wil b taken care of by whoever wins. The int’l community wil assist. We don’t want to be bogged down in the current situation any longer.
• Lets get over this thing called ‘election’ coz it has been dragged far 2 long! 31 July is indeed gud.
• The court has already made a ruling and the President is simply abiding.

Where possible, we mapped this opinion, colour coded by category (use this link to open the map full screen, then click on a point to view that point’s comment in a pop-up window):

View full screen

Read more comments on this election announcement by downloading the full list here.

This entry was posted on June 14th, 2013 at 1:02 pm by Amanda Atwood and is filed under Elections 2013, Uncategorized, Zimbabwe News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.