strawman december's elections the date for god as far as presidential elections has been announced the vote will be held on the twentieth of april next year the presidential vote will take place six months after the parliamentary and local elections to shed shield for october. government targeting a convoy carrying alexion material in mali have killed at least four soldiers attackers also died after a shootout in the southern region office a good vote counting is underway in mali following sunday's presidential election poor man a ford contends that a business partner rather than man of fortune self was responsible for alleged tax evasion and bank fraud the former campaign chief for president trump has denied all charges and his opening remarks manifolds lawyer said his business partner richard gates was the one who quote had his hand in the cookie jar those are the headlines on al-jazeera the stream is up next.

ok and you are in the stream. millions turned out to vote one day in zimbabwe is historic close run election day we ask what's next for the country post mugabe so tweet us comment in the life you cheap shot you too could be in the street. monday zimbabweans voted in the country's first election since former president robert mugabe was forced from power. without my name on the ballot voters had to choose from a field of twenty three candidates including the two front runners incumbent

president. faced a tough challenge from nelson chamisa of the opposition movement for democratic change or m.d.c. . has been president since the military toppled mugabe in a bloodless coup well joining us to talk about the election and what's next for zimbabwe in harare linda she's an independent who ran for parliament to represent the harare constituency. she's also an independent who ran for a local council seat to one of the he's the executive director of the election resource center of think tank and advocacy organization on electoral and democracy issues in zimbabwe in johannesburg south africa tuffy maka he's a social and political commentator with a special focus on zimbabwe and john dramani mahama he's the former. didn't of god and is the head of the commonwealth observer group one of the organizations monitoring zimbabwe's elections welcome everyone to the stream president i want to

start with you because we tweeted out to our community of viewers that you'd be on the show with your eye on the zimbabwe and elections and here are two accounts we got back tina here says the actual voting casting a ballot was very peaceful and there was no recorded incident in my area on the other hand we got this from joe black zimbabwe who says a whole polling station went missing monday and the electoral commission is failing or refusing to post results forms at a fifth polling stations is there any practical action that you mr president can take or show that barely be mentioned under irregularities as usual from your initial assessment what is your take on how the voting is gone. the observation of voting coming categorized into three distinct

binds the period before the election where that is a level playing field and people have the opportunity to be able to come pain and take their message to the people the next fight is voting day actually where people come out to vote at the polling stations laid out well at the accessible people able to cast their votes in secrets and then how did the continent go and then the ted parties after the vote and that is the telling of the results. we gave our arrival interview which was based on reports that we had picked up from our previous esplin team but we also spoke to all to speak with us and then in their obama interview we indicated what out thoughts were about the environment before the election and all the public woke up at the store and asked that they had been free to come back i suppose from across the country it was unlike previous elections where there were no go areas where some political parties could not going

to set an interest of zimbabwe and so with access to come paining i think that the political parties expressed satisfaction so much that some of the kind of like let us only say this one thing if i may cause i was only on your twitter feed here and . talking to people what's the atmosphere like because a certain amount of what your day which is rote and by the numbers but will move people out in zimbabwe what was the atmosphere like what you can fill about the selection. atmosphere was one of enthusiasm everywhere we went to all the polling stations and i took the opportunity to speak to the voters who were queued up asking what the expectations were and i must commend zimbabweans they came out in their numbers we don't have the official term out yet but. queues in some cases the queues were quite long but had the patience to stand in the queues and. to cast

their votes ok so it was a very enthusiastic atmosphere people which. make their voices. preston jemini mahama thank you very much for joining us to talk about what it is like to be chair of the commonwealth group of observers a couple of working in zimbabwe right now thank you mr president for joining us do people were voting for you what was it like for you knowing that this election this historic election that it was a little different from any other election in your lifetime. was reading a site that there are actually people who believed in me and important for me even if i did not win the election and. everyone of us feeling like there's the time for change and there's like a new next gen up but that is seven years of war and the like but in all over again let me show you this this i found on your twitter feed and it's from couldn't die

and could i says we are not defined by the things that don't go our way i have my your courage and hard work you fought a good fight take the disappointments and work on them and basically you are one of the people who know that you didn't when you didn't get that office that you ran for local government office and saying don't give up the number of young people who actually were in contention what does that say about zimbabwe right now. lot of young people go by i think young people are devoted to be bitchy and that it is their power and that it can be the need of because they are the next generation they need fighting to take their family into their own hands saw all the young people now people like it's time for them to participate in the governance process and the politics of the country and to rebut change and to bring development and change in the country. taffy i'm just looking here for a rundown of the zimbabwe elections twenty eight hundred voting at

a glance there which that photo is the twenty three presidential candidates what do you make of that. you know well i think it was a much freer government that it was in previous elections and i think that created a lot of optimism. around this electoral process but. i still feel that the election was not entirely free and fair i think the voting. was fairly peaceful i think that campaigns were. we've done in a very. optimal environment but i don't think the process itself was entirely free or fair i think everything was tilted towards sort of people from the government linda you're in contention you were trying to get a parliamentary seat what toffy says says i he's not convinced that this is

a free and fair election from your perspective how did it go. as a candidate to. have a totally different experience i actually believed it was free and i. ordered and the results that came through a hundred fold to seek according to me on the ground as a candidate the process has. very transparent from a candidate's point of view. so i fear that point and i think that a lot of people online agree with you but then there is this sentiment from a couple people why is it taking so long for zimbabwe and the zimbabwe election electoral commission to release the results so i'll share two things here from the candidate two of them themselves also winning resoundingly we now have results from majority of the over ten thousand polling stations this was as of july thirtieth we've done exceedingly well we're awaiting the electoral commission to perform

their constitutional duty to officially announce the people's election results and were ready to form the next government of course the incumbent though is also tweeting patience is a virtue you can see it in several of his tweets here and one and two on the i'm wondering if you can answer our original tweeters question on why it's taking so long and is that something that's unusual. definitely something that we. observers to the election process. not only i think twenty four hours after. you'd expect a mix and commission managed to comment on the election results and. getting transmitted to the national tally center. not to have happened and the question. of what's going on and we've been raising this of the electoral commission now as we speak mission has been issuing out. for house of assembly elections and i've given to

them has been. the result of what i've been declared to the constituent the center why not just proceed down to the presidential designs reship not yet been. mounted. but i didn't indicate any. regulations in terms of elections should be elections as i was should be handled. move from the polling station to the workplace and send them to the constituent percentile. probably at the. end when they get to the national center what should happen is that the president should be the ones that i'd be glad that we have not yet been. given they didn't intend to. by this time. not now this is something that we. we

think it plays a question that i'm transparency and accountability on the part of the election commission not much information is given in terms of what is going on. the danger not concluding. that. people get wind of what's going on. and we definitely would want to have the election commission. and . so that people can be caught. so that the election period the product of eight by . tranquility and by people claiming that sentence on this is what we wanted the end of the day and we hope will be it will get on the sunday nine o'clock commission. just to have on to it to understand it. i think there's so many things that the m.d.c. alliance for example. as for before the election from sick. during the election and after the election and i think what is pretty much seen is that segue

as not been responding positively to many of the things that have been brought up but by the m.d.c. alliance so who when i for example speak of an election not being free and fair i'm looking at very critical points as in how the votes are counted but even more before the election i'm looking at the state media was biased towards an epiphany government which has been the case since ninety day and. definitely there was an issue where throughout the campaign both women and god and she used the power of incumbency to the maximum and created a situation where you couldn't really tell the difference between government and party functions and things of that nature so i think fundamentally this election looks free and fair but i think when we went we're going to results have been

released and we look back on everything that might be a lot of critical things that actually might have helped the incumbent to stamp out if he does manage. wonder bring up this this perspective this is from city bay on twitter and he's rough into something that a lot of people are referencing that we can't even talk about this election without talking about former president mugabe says whoever emerges the new president of zimbabwe will have mugabe's shadow to bury first a new some bob wait is it possible without peeling mugabe its claws from of the country so some strong words there does away but do you think that this is a fair point. i think here right in there because remember the the president in these mugabe this is all for me i believe that this is. what they did and it's the one that is being poisoned or this. and that system

has to be led or let's call that the thought of fish so that system has been affecting our country all that it is needed and it has to be totally done off where you want to go growth of the country do you this is something that you shared with people who follow you on twitter congratulations mr president are you calling the election right now to wonder what he said the results of the late this is this smacks of maybe not being too transparent and he you all is this not mischief making in such an important election ok paul saying congratulations on that your men of your running the next year. but you cooling things so mr president what that's your nickname for him what is that all the president apart. ok. ari so i mean this is one of the things that i'm thinking about linda

about this idea of q. . and a nagra these two very prominent leaders and i'm front runner as if one of them wins and the other one doesn't say ok i agree you've won is that a concern that zimbabweans have right now you know obviously if one does not concede if you didn't do not concede an election obviously tensions will rise and we do not know which way it could go but at the end of the day if one does not concede it's the citizens who suffer honestly so there's a slight a also about the momentum of the m.d.c. and being pushed along toughing how would you like to unpack that a little bit for us so being the name of the m.d.c. wed to wed is what we're doing really well right now the m.d.c.

is doing really well yeah. the problem is we don't have. fissures but i can understand where he's coming from he went into this with a lot of momentum. and if you're this close to victory but i think the problem is. into the election knowing that there are a lot of things that could go against him. and i mean we can say for sure that anything. anything untoward has been. but i think the longer the results. the longer it takes to announce the results. the stronger the suspicion that it might be slipping away from jimmy said so so i think you're trying to keep people. so we keep people hyped up probably in the mode

if necessary they can go out in the streets to defend what they feel was. to him so i think that's the situation we're in right now. and what it is that they are defending for so many people is bigger than just who wins but the policies that then will be enacted so when asked in our community what is it that you want the president to tackle when they get into office we've got several comments that look like this platen says tackle the economy and create jobs another person suggested video comment with what is most important to them and for them this is hillary who is as a researcher based in south africa now and this is what he told the stream there is no use for to a party to talk about in the two thousand and eight elections in zimbabwe because sixty percent of the registered voters are between eighteen and forty and with a seventy five percent voter turnout that makes young people they came changes in

these elections the young people are voted they have decided who they want to be late with for the next five years and to that leader the asking for access to the means of production access to capital access to land for housing and for farming people's lives. what do you make of that comment. yeah i mean. i get with it i think i think this election or perhaps the two parties. symbolizes conservative view of zimbabwe and the empty symbolism or youthful past progress if you. and. i think many urban youth are troubled roots but i think many of the youth have. been drawn towards the m.d.c. alliance because i think they have never really experienced a single way that. is not in economic to move. this

crisis that we have for example has been running for close to twenty years and if you're eighteen for example you're born smack in the middle of a crisis and used to living with it up to now so i think a lot of people a little young people putting their. they their most in. introducing some sort of new dispensation that is way different from the current over that we know. because the last time smoke and a strong economy for all intents and purposes was nine hundred ninety seven so you could understand the divide between the young the middle and or the elderly. you know you spoke the words of one of our you to commentary is thinking almost exactly about here tweeting and or excuse me being on you tube writing and saying i would love to see cheney say get elected because of him being relatively younger and then more relatable to the public do to say do you agree without. i do we

are at a population the mainly young people and. president would absolutely. because of the canaries and that is at my period of the population. and we're the ones that have been suffering the more and we're seeing him. and adam the change one was able to obviously that we're facing as young people because these four young into the economy so important it's something that you as a business woman really appreciate now whether you're empowerment impala men how do you feel that the the next administration should be tackling issues about the economy and wealth in zimbabwe we need a president who works hard and we need a president who has. or other is keen to reengage the communities international communities we had been previously shut out from so. with

regards to the corner meat we need to get back to production once i once upon a time tweeted that we need a president who's willing to be a villain for a short while literally shut down zinn for a bit and ask us to last sleeves up and work for the. this is been exhausting campaign for you i can tell just from some of the the energy that you put into it that you put into it i want to show you all stop campaigning stop take when you were. and are ready for the fight. how like how i know you. will say i don't know what i'm feeling it's all stem from you and also from doodoo but what are you going to do with that exhaustion. for me right now i decided to take a break today and i'm taking my loss by bichon i am going back full

time into business and looking forward to some of the projects that i've been working on that didn't have time to. work on in the last nine months so i'm really looking forward to that honestly. and do what about you next steps because. what happens is you probably can't just be left to the politicians not just imagine to remake zimbabwe. old bob we. want to be. everybody i'm going to play my part in building a dozen by we. my biz in the election doesn't mean last stop in my day if i can probably get into that place that you want to see but at the moment i'm taking a break. because of. also doing my business is. that i have and also doing an m.b.a. soul i need to eat or concentrate on that and i'm also going to do some community

bellman projects in the local community that i reside in lanza do with a lean or non fiction i hate to go from such a hopeful note and the positive things that are going to happen in your life and for the country because of you with this tweet but there are a couple of people who are bringing this topic up to one doctor wellness on twitter says the greatest fear is one not accepting defeat and then throwing our country into a crisis again in the last couple minutes of our show to wonder is this one of the fears that you share or do you think it's not valid. definitely i think it's fair that it specially given the quality of the election process we have seen it so far one of the reasons why we continue to say that we need to have a credible election process which is concluded in a manner that is acceptable to all use their loved ones to really limits its potential area of the disputed election process which will then raise the question

about the lead to results now in spite of the fact that we've stayed becomes a has been peaceful in the lead up to this election there's no doubt that there's been massive qualify. and any misunderstanding adding how the election process been conducted and the potential to see. what we have seen in previous elections in zimbabwe and this is one of our going to speak it and our insistence of the election commission that they need to exercise a lot of transparency and accountability to an administration of down spending election issues right under that that seems a very reasonable place to end that conversation for now linda and to london do do and tapping thank you very much for being part of the program and on we had preston john germania mahama from the commonwealth quiz of observers thank you for watching and you can i will see on live always on twitter act a j. street sees that's tight.

we. thank.

it's history and food today a new generation is shaking things up. my everything. it's all different. all these cultures i'm on top of each other. with here to see. a tiki culture and. when diplomacy fields and.

the reasons for divisions in different parts of the world and the impact. on live from studio fourteen here at al-jazeera headquarters. through the news group violence in zimbabwe where the. official election results showing the ruling. force for a significant majority in parliament. from outside. but the government insists all is fair as everyone waits to hear the next big announcement who won the presidential vote also on the granite singing his praises the former warlords.

to the democratic republic of congo to the. supporters he once took one for.