Monday 3 October 2016

It is "insane" participating in rigged elections says Musewe - stop talking and boycott By Nomusa Garikai

Zimbabwe is in this political and economic mess because we have had the great misfortune of having a corrupt and tyrannical regime for 36 years long years. That, however, is not the full story; the other bit is that we have had the great misfortune of have a corrupt and incompetent opposition. President Mugabe would have never enjoyed absolute power for all these years if we had had a competent opposition!

“I have said many times before, Mugabe at 92 has no incentive to reform a system which fortified his total domination for the last 36 years. In addition, those who have benefitted from such a system and continue to benefit from it also have no incentive for radical change unless forced to do so by circumstances,” wrote Vince Musewe.

Of course President Mugabe has “no incentive to reform a system which fortified his total domination for the last 36 years”; that goes without saying. It is you and your fellow opposition leaders who have completely failed to grasp this simple notion and have failed to implement the all-important democratic reforms landing us all into this mess.

“In my opinion it is a pipe dream to think that Mugabe and his coterie can give up political power through elections which the very machinery he dominates and controls. Even the call to register to vote is to me a useless endeavour because how can you register in an illegitimate system that you want to change,” continued Musewe is his usual condescending Mister-know-it-all manner.

Since the end of the GPA it has been a lot harder to implement democratic reforms but not impossible. This is precisely why MDC should have implemented the reforms during the GNU when President Mugabe had his hands tied behind his back by the GPA.

Registering and taking part in the 2013 elections with no reforms implemented was not just “a useless endeavor”, it was a downright criminal folly. SADC leaders and others warned Tsvangirai and his MDC friends not to take part in the July 2013 elections without implementing the reforms first but, of course, the MDC leaders paid no heed – a point that has escaped the notice of our Mister-know-it-all.

Since the rigged July 2013 elections most mainstream opposition parties have said that they will boycott all future elections until democratic reforms are implemented - the very thing they should have done before the July 2013 elections. Still this is the only logic position going ahead; what is worrying is that none of the parties can expected to honor that position come the national elections.  

Free, fair and credible election are about giving the electorate a meaningful say in the governance of the country. Rigging the elections is about denying the people their right to a free and meaningful vote for the selfish reason of seizing power against the democratic wish of the people. The trick is to rigging elections and still keep up all the outward appearance of a contested election to justify afterwards that the elections were free, fair and credible.

President Mugabe tactic has been to rig the elections but allow the opposition to win a handful of seats, enough to entice them to abandon the stance to boycott the elections. It has worked!

Of course the opposition would like to have free and fair elections because that will increase their chance of beating the Zanu PF candidates. A principled demand for free and fair elections is great for the nation in that it is the guarantee of competent and accountable government.

However free elections are a calculated risk for the contesting candidates in that no one is ever guaranteed of victory. The risk is intolerably high for likes of Morgan Tsvangirai, Tendai Biti and Joice Mujuru who have a well-documented track as corrupt and incompetent leaders; close scrutiny of their past will render them unelectable.

When the political prospect of ever getting back into power are grim with or without reforms implemented it is to see why people like Tsvangirai and Mujuru would rather call-off the boycott and fight each other over the crumbs. If asked they will all say that they will boycott the elections if everyone else does whilst privately hope everyone else will boycott leaving them to win all the crumbs!

“Zimbabweans must wake up, there is absolutely no point participating as willing partners in elections registration process in an illegitimate system presided over by partisan institutions. We cannot ever afford to assume that any political process, presided over by this evil machinery can stand for national interest,” lamented Musewe.

It is his fellow opposition parties that he should be speaking to although he will be whistling in the graveyard.

The opposition will take part in the elections and then, as always, complain that the elections were rigged. The whole world will ignore the complaining as sour grapes since the complainants had known all along that the Zanu PF plays with loaded dices!

“Another Zimbabwe is possible yes but it will not come by trusting the system or trusting ZANU (PF) or trusting Mugabe. It is like doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results. That's insane,” concluded Musewe.

Charity begins at home. Mr. Musewe and his PDP should make the bold and momentous decision and vow that they will BOYCOTT the next elections until reforms are implemented as a matter of principle regardless of whether or not other opposition parties follow their example or not! End the insanity yourself, why wait for others to do the same!



4 comments:

Zimbabwe Light said...

What has been noticeably lacking in Zimbabwe is quality and principled politicians on both sides of the political drive.

Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs boast of themselves as the party of liberation and yet when their hold on power is threatened they have readily thrown out of the window the principles of respecting the people's freedoms and basic human rights including the right to a free and meaningful vote and even the right to life. Even people calling themselves freedom fighters like Mutsvangwa, Mutemadandaf and the rest of the war veterans have been Mugabe's dogs harassing, beating and even killing innocent people to impose Mugabe's corrupt and tyrannical regime.

It has been a hard slog for our friend Vince Musewe to accept that contesting an election you know is going to be rigged is "insane"! My congratulations to him for seeing what anyone with an brain would have seen as obvious. Forget about asking his party, PDP, to take principle stand and boycott the elections; he should do so himself regardless what the other PDP members decide! Musewe is so desperate to get into power I for one would not trust him to honour his promise to boycott the elections; he will forget the big prize of free, fair and credible elections and go for the crumbs Mugabe throws at him!

You are right, Mugabe knows only too well that he is dealing with people, be they Zanu PF members or opposition members, politicians or none politicians like Judges, Police Commissioners or ZEC, with no morals or principles. Their principles, hearts and souls are all for sale and he has the calico cloth and shiny beads they all cannot resist!

Mugabe would give in and accept the implementation of all the democratic reforms if he believed even for one minute that there were even 100 principled Zimbabweans out there! Such is the nation's sorry state which is why we are in this mess and have no chance of ever getting out!

Zimbabwe Light said...

It was the great Physicist Albert Einstein who said insanity was doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different outcome!

For the last 36 years Zimbabweans have taken part in elections expecting the process to be free, fair and credible; in the past people suspected that Mugabe was rigging the vote now we KNOW he is rigging the vote. Following the 2008 elections marred by vote rigging and wanton violence SADC leaders spelt out what democratic reforms we needed to implement to ensure future elections were free, fair and credible. None of the reforms were implemented although MDC had the golden opportunity to do so during the GNU.

MDC leaders and the people of Zimbabwe at large were warned not to take part in the 2013 elections with no reforms implemented; they did not listen. MDC leaders assured the people the elections will be free, fair and credible and the people believed them. Mugabe went on to blatantly rig the vote by tampering with the voters roll and denying nearly a million voters the vote, spending billions of dollars paying NIKUV to corrupt the voters roll, bussing hired crowds ti party rallies and supporters from one polling station to the next to vote, etc.

We know not even one meaningful reform has been implemented since July 2013. We also know that the looting of Marange diamonds by Mugabe and his cronies has since July 2013 gone into overdrive. It is therefore certain that Zanu PF will once again blatantly rig the next elections and they have billions of dollars to bankroll their vote rigging schemes!

Of course it is INSANE to take part in such an election process 100% certain the whole process will be rigged and yet talk oneself into believing the process will be free, fair and credible.

Our Friend Mr. Vince Musewe should lead by example and publicly announce to the world that rather than be used by Zanu pf to give legitimacy to a clearly illegitimate and insane process he will boycott the elections until all reforms are implemented! If he was a principle man with some working grey stuff between his ears he would make this commitment and pay no regard to what anyone else says or does!

Zimbabwe Light said...

@ Mandaza

I agree that the NTA is one possible way out of the hell-hole Zimbabwe is stuck in today. I do not, however, agree that it will be enough to replace the executive branch alone, A Zanu PF controlled parliament, Police and judiciary will want to do nothing but throw the spanner in the works to ensure Zanu PF's dominance is maintain post NTA era.

Zanu PF and the current crop of opposition members have failed the nation and we must accept that fact and state it in no uncertain terms that having contributed in getting the nation into this mess these politicians have forfeited a right to place a role in the transition process of dismantling the present dictatorship and replacing it with a democratic system.

Zimbabwe Light said...

Tsvangirai and his MDC friends have had the golden opportunity to remove Mugabe through peaceful and constitutional means they failed to do so because they are breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent. It is not surprising that these village idiots are seeking change by staging street protests which will lead to rioting and worse. Mugabe is a man of violence and he certainly does not need an second invitation when it comes to using violence to settle a dispute.

Tsvangirai has not spelt out what reforms we need because he has no clue what these are. He is calling for street protests to hide the fact that he has no clue what democratic reforms we need - which explains why he failed to get even one reform implemented in the five years of the GNU.

What Zimbabwe needs is someone to propose a roadmap out of this hell-hole, the NTA is a good start; only when we have a clear plan what we want should we up the stakes and stage street protests!