Zimbabwe’s general elections marked an improvement over votes during the rule of former President Robert Mugabe, but were still marred by abuses including the use of food assistance to bolster the campaign of the ruling party, two U.S. observer groups said.
The International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute said that while the campaign was relatively free, there were “numerous incidents” of food and agricultural assistance and “extreme media bias” being used to secure support for President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front. Earlier, the European Union said Zimbabwe didn’t achieve a “level playing field” in the presidential and parliamentary elections on Monday.
