Opposition Parties’ Coalition-Building: Prospects and Challenges in Zimbabwean Electoral Body Politic

Elections in the Sub-Saharan region are highly contested and buckled with irregularities, with ruling parties unwilling to concede electoral defeat. In Zimbabwe, for four decades, the ZANU-PF party’s electoral dominance has been either by coercion or consent. This article investigates the electoral challenges and prospects of an opposition political parties’ party’s office-seeking coalition with a specific focus on the Zimbabwean harmonized elections from 2008 to 2023. Nonetheless, the research traces the history of Zimbabwean coalitions within and outside the electoral politics narrative from the revolutionary parties’ movement to post-independence 1980. Thus, the research details the history of opposition parties’, Civil Society Organizations and revolutionary parties’ military wing coalition formation. The research methods were triangulated using qualitative methods of ethnography, intenography, and publications, gathering data through interviews, online sources and documentary reviews. The research interviewed 10 Zimbabwean participants who are living in Zimbabwe and South Africa. The gathered data were analyzed through content and thematic analysis – using grounded theory to develop themes and patterns in the research. The research findings indicate that the ruling party, ZANU-PF, has been in power for decades through voter manipulation and violence – a stealth authoritarian practice. Historically, the opposition parties’ internecine conflicts contributed to their failure to build a strong opposition coalition and win the presidential elections. Therefore, the study recommends that the opposition coalition, youth, ethnic and religious-based campaigning are essential to challenge the ruling party, ZANU-PF, during elections.