MDC president Nelson Chamisa is scheduling his own mock inauguration weekend according to his spokesperson Nkululeko Sibanda. Nelson Chamisa also is making a “presidential cabinet” appointing leaders in the MDC party. Chamisa lost the Zimbabwean presidential election to Emmerson Mnangagwa on July 30th, 2018, Which according to Temba Mliswa has thrown him into a depressed state going as far as saying he needs serious psychiatric help.
The MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) party claims that the July election was fraud and the entire electoral system was rigged by the Mugabe administration. Mugabe was the President and leader of Zimbabwe from 1987 to 2017, being forced to resign on November 21st, 2017 due to various scandals. His Vice President, Mnangagwa, took the role of president. Prior to the election, Chamisa formed the MDC alliance, uniting 7 different political parties in Zimbabwe most of which were splinters of the original MDC party that split in 2005. This along with wavering support for the Mugabe administration makes it hard to believe that Mnangagwa outright won, but whether there was tampering in the election we will never know for sure. This undoubted support for Chamisa makes for a scary political situation between the party in power, ZANU–PF (Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front), and the MDC party. Tensions are heating in Zimbabwe, when President Mnangagwa heard of the proposed mock inauguration he responded with this, “What Chamisa is doing is against the law. He is the breaking the law. He can be arrested,”.
People are questioning Chamisa’s next move, many people believe depending on the support he receives during the “inauguration”, he will make a move to take the presidential position through any means necessary. The vote count splits the country in two with Chamisa (MDC) at 44.3% and Mnangagwa (ZANU-PF) at 50.8%. A civil war in Zimbabwe may be closer than people think, this would have obvious impacts worldwide. Possibly sparking other revolutions around the world, and more directly having economic impacts. War is almost never good for the global economy, especially for Zimbabwe and its main trading partners South Africa and Botswana.