By Dr Gus Manatsa| Election season in any country brings with it some crazy “vote for me” rhetoric. Politicians become “snake oil salespersons” gunning for the public’s vote. In a normal voting system, it is the candidate whose message resonates with potential voters the most who usually gets the vote. But then, in Zimbabwe and indeed many other African countries, the voting system is nowhere near normal.

The playing ground is never made level and is often biased towards the incumbent. In Zimbabwe, the system is made much more complicated by the dominance of the military in all major institutions including the so-called Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, Registrar General’s office, government departments and other such institutions. We all know the history of poor performance of commissions in Zimbabwe. Lack of funding and political interference (a polite way of describing corruption), has resulted in most commissions set up by government failing to deliver in terms of the Constitution, rendering them useless and a burden to the nation’s fiscus. Add to that, poor governance, recycling of underperforming ministers and a shameless spirit of entitlement.

The military junta has regularly pronounced that they will not salute a toddler. They will not allow
anyone with no war credentials to rule the country. That means anyone below the age of 60 is not fit
to contest presidential position. These military strongmen have no regards for the constitution. They have ruled this country by default via the Joint Operations Command (JOC). Led by Emerson
Mnagangwa, the JOC was implicated in the violent suppression of opposition supporters between
the 29 March election and the runoff election in July 2008.

Despite what the junta would want us to believe, it is fact that some of the most progressive nations
in the world are or have been led by relatively young people. If he becomes president, Chamisa will join a growing list of successful world leaders in the 40-50 age group. On the other hand, if
Mnangagwa becomes legitimate president, he will join a dying breed of aged world leaders. For
example, at 71, Donald Trump is the oldest USA president (at inauguration).

Some of the best performing American presidents were in their early or mid-40s when they were
sworn-in. Theodore Roosevelt was only 42 when he became president. In polls of historians and
political scientists, Roosevelt is generally ranked as one of the five best presidents. JF Kennedy was
43 when he became president of the USA. Young, daring and charismatic, he challenged the
Americans to dig deep and land a man on the moon (spaghetti roads anybody). Kennedy continues to rank highly in historians’ polls of U.S. presidents and with the public. His average approval rating of 70% is the highest of any president in Gallup’s history of systematically measuring job approval. A
brave champion and supporter of the civil rights movement, JFK verbally supported racial integration and civil rights.

At 46, Bill Clinton became one of the youngest America presidents, who delivered a budget surplus, the first such surplus since 1969 (something Zimbabwe can desperately needs). Clinton left office with the highest end-of-office approval rating of any U.S. president since World War II, and he has continually scored high in the historical rankings of U.S. presidents, consistently placing in the top third.

We all remember the dreamy ascendency of one Barack Obama to the highest USA office in 2008, at
the age of 47. Obama overcame all manner of attacks both during his campaigns and presidency
(including Donald Trump’s birther movement). During his 8 years in office, Obama signed many
landmark bills into law including the Affordable Care Act (dubbed Obamacare) and spearheaded the Climate change Paris Agreement.