Everything MDC says and does smacks of political naivety, hypocrisy
and even criminal duplicity.
Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends may like to compare
themselves with Raila Odinga his National Super Alliance but that is comparing chalk
and cheese. Odinga was Prime Minister in a GNU following violent 2007 elections
in Kenya, likewise Tsvangirai was PM in Zimbabwe following the 2008 elections
but that is where the comparison ends. Whilst Odinga carried out meaningful
democratic reforms giving back key State Institutions such as the Police,
Courts and Elections Commission their independence; Tsvangirai failed to get
even one such reform implemented.
“An election should be an occasion that affords voters the right to freely and fairly choose their representatives. As long as an election is marred by gross irregularities, it undermines the will of the people and in the process, it becomes a direct attack on the concept of democracy,” wrote Obert Gutu, MDC-T spokesman. He was commenting on the news of the Kenya Supreme Court ruling declaring the recent presidential election result in that country result null and void.
Gutu was just paying lip service to the call for free and
fair elections because if MDC really cared then they should have implemented
the democratic reforms to guarantee such elections during the GNU when they had
the golden opportunity to do so. When SADC leaders warned MDC leaders not to
contest the 2013 elections with no reforms the later disregarded the warning
and contested.
Even when Zanu PF stubbornly refuse to release a verifiable
voters’ roll MDC still went ahead and contest the July 2013 elections. Gutu is
talking about elections being “marred by gross irregularities” what other
irregularity can be worse than failing to release the voters’ roll especially
when it was the smoking gun that would have proven many other vote rigging
irregularities.
As we know Zanu PF went on to blatantly rig the July 2013
dragging the country into the political paralysis – because we are still stuck
with a corrupt and tyrannical regime that has the licence to rig the vote and
stay in power – and economic chaos – because of the worsening economic meltdown
which can only be address if there is meaningfully democratic and political change.
After the rigged July 2013 elections, MDC politicians promised
to get meaningful democratic reforms implemented and vowed “No reform, no
election!” Sadly, these politicians have since change their minds, they are
going to contest next year’s elections regardless of the fact not even one
reform, has been implemented.
“We have come up with our own new strategies which are
smarter that we are going to use in wiring and wining the elections,” Gutu told
New Zimbabwe last week.
“I think you are now hearing us talking about the WIRE (short for Winning In Rigged Elections) trajectory, which is our new strategy, because obviously we are budgeting for the worst case scenario where the regime is not going to budge because very little in terms of reforms has been done and we will be fools to think that Zanu PF is going to give in.”
The immediate response is to question why the party did not
use the strategy in all these years Zanu PF has been rigging elections?
The truth is MDC failed to get even one reform implemented
and they needed an excuse for disregarding SADC’s warning against contesting
flawed elections and their own party congress resolution not to contest; this
mystical, wire strategy is that excuse.
We know that Robert Mugabe has been very careful to let the
opposition win a few seats, to entice them to participate in the elections to
give the rigged elections some modicum of credibility. Mugabe needs to
cultivate this façade of democracy to avoid the elections being declared null
and void and being forced into yet another GNU or worse. The opposition are
contesting the flawed elections in pursuit of these few bribe-seats, as David
Coltart, a former MDC Senator and Minister in the GNU has admitted in his book.
“The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a
coalition was that both MDCs couldn’t now do the obvious – withdraw from the
elections,” explained Senator Coltart.
“The electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the
only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to
account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither
could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning
seats and giving the process credibility.”
It is insane to keep contesting elections one knows will be
rigged and hope again hope that this once Zanu PF will rig the vote and lose
the elections. It is high treason to deny, or connive with the tyrant to do so,
the most vulnerable and innocent people of their freedoms and human rights and
humanity for selfish gain.
“A rigged election
can easily trigger political instability and socio–economic turbulence,”
concluded Gutu. If MDC’s wire strategy does not work and Zanu PF rigs the elections
and win then MDC will have a lot to answer for because it MDC leaders who failed
to implement the reforms and are now insisting on contesting the flawed elections!
8 comments:
This is just typical of MDC leaders, they will never admit to making a mistake even to the extent of contradicting themselves. Obert Gutu has admitted that voter intimidation is a serious problem especially in the rural areas and yet has said nothing to address this although he still maintains MDC “is smarter”.
He acknowledges that the people of Zimbabwe came out in support of MDC in the 2013 elections and talked of 70 000 attending the party’s “cross-over” rally in Harare. This was repeated up and down the country and contrasted with Zanu PF’s very poorly attended rallies. It is therefore nonsensical for Gutu to then attribute MDC’s defeat to “voter apathy”.
We all know many people came from as far as SA and other neighbouring countries to register to vote but one way or the other were denied the chance to register. Nearly one million people who thought they were on the voters’ roll found out of voting day that they were not in the constituency voters’ roll and so were denied the vote. Many of them came from as far afield as SA, etc.
We also know that many Zanu PF supporters were bussed from one Polling Station to the next casting multiple votes.
The problem of names missing from voters’ roll, multiple voting and many other vote rigging irregularities would have been easily uncovered if the regime had released a verifiable voters’ roll. Mr Obert Gutu himself admits that he, as Tsvangirai’s election agent, was never given a copy of the roll.
From what Gutu said in the interview, the only thing MDC are doing to win next year’s elections is fight voter apathy – although this was not even a problem in 2013.
It is one thing to disregard the common sense position of saying no to elections until reforms to ensure free and fair elections are implemented, drag the nation into yet another flawed election on basis MDC has a strategy to Win In Rigged Elections (WIRE). It will be totally unacceptable to find after Zanu PF has once again rigged the elections that this was just another one of MDC’s foolish promises!
Indeed, the nation will be very foolish indeed to even put their trust in a woolly strategy pregnant with contradiction. If the elections are rigged, Zanu PF’s vote rigging juggernaut is the best in the business, then you will not win them. It is folly to agree to contest an election you know will be rigged especially when you can have clean elections if you so wished.
We what never ever forget that it was MDC who sold-out on implementing reforms!
ZEC to give feeble excuses for abandoning BVR.
One of Zanu PF's well tried and tested ways of hiding its dirty tricks is to make sure there is no time for people to see what the regime is doing. Think of it as a crocodile fishing in mudded waters, fish will blunder into its mouth! Zanu PF was going to rig the coming elections whether they used the BVR system or the old system.
On the seats proposal, MDC-T has 114 seats, MDC (Welshman Ncube) 32seats, ZimPF 30seats, MCD 1seats, PDP 14 seats and TZ 19seats.
After the meeting last weekend and in a party Whatsapp platform, Biti is said to have announced that he is crossing over to the alliance because it is the 'best decision' for him and dared the party congress to fire him.
"The idea to have an Alliance with Tsvangirai is the best for me. If I am wrong let my party vote me out, come next congress," said Biti.
A sell-out will do it again and again!
During Kenya's GNU Odinga definitely implemented many democratic reforms freeing the media and the judiciary amongst the many institutions The same cannot be said of Tsvangirai, he failed to get even one reforms implemented. He is still in politics only because the Zimbabwe electorate is one of the most naïve and gullible in the world.
People get the government they deserve and we certain deserve this corrupt and murderous Zanu PD dictatorship complete with the corrupt and incompetent MDC opposition. We are the poorest nation in Africa and deserve the poverty and all the suffering and deaths it has brought; a nation that buries its head in the sand and refuse to think is bound to pay for its sins and so we are.
@ Themba Mthethwa
I agree with you, Themba, Rita Makarau will weave a long yarn to justify whatever decision the regime has made but it will all be nonsense.
“Rita will put forward an argument that she will not use the biometric voter registration and verification technology as her commission has not been allocated enough funding by government to ensure a successful implementation of the exercise,” you said.
If the regime has the money to pay for 365 new vehicles to the party and has just spend $20 million buying local traditional leaders vehicles and other goodies. Last year we learnt the regime is still paying NIKUV, the Israeli company for unspecified services; the regime paid NIKUV US $10m to corrupt the 2013 voters’ roll. The regime has been in election campaign mode since 2014 with Grace Mugabe holding her rallies and now the husband is having his Youth Interface rallies; everyone knows that millions are being poured into each and every one of these rallies. If the regime has the money to bankroll all these political activities, surely it would have found the few millions to fund the BVR system.
If the regime abandon the BVR system the decision to do so was made a long time ago but is only being made now to create confusion.
Whether ZEC goes ahead and use the BVR system or revert to the old system what matters, as far as Zanu PF is concerned, is that in the stampede the regime will introduce many of its vote rigging dirty tricks. No one will ever uncover the tricks because there will be no time to produce a verifiable voters roll. Job done!
The only logical response here is for the people of Zimbabwe to accept the political reality of the sheer futility of contesting elections knowing Zanu PF will rig the vote.
“If you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done!” SADC leaders warned Tsvangirai and company in June 2013. The warning is equally true today.
What is it going to take this nation before we finally learn that if we want free, fair and credible elections then we must implement the democratic reforms stopping Zanu PF rigging the vote?
The BBC reports the president of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta, has said his country has “a problem” with its judiciary after the Supreme Court cancelled his victory in last month’s presidential election.
Speaking on live television, he vowed to “fix” the court if re-elected.
Uhuru Kenyatta had done the right and honourable thing by accepting the Judge’s ruling but it was clearly too good to last. Within hours Kenyatta reverted to his old tyrannical dictatorial self. This is where the people of Kenya must forget their narrow party political and tribal partisan allegiances and come out in numbers and slam down Kenyatta. If he has any evidence to show that the Judges were wrong in their ruling then he must present the evidence in a court of law and not threaten the judges!
Raila Odinga must remind the people of Kenya the risk the nation will be running if the elect someone determined to “fix” the courts and that the nation back to the dark days of corrupt and tyrannical one-party dictatorship. Odinga should be coming out with proposals of his own to strengthen the independence of the judiciary and to protect judges from the caprice of would be dictators.
Kenya’s democracy is only a few years old and its democratic institutions are all but helpless infants who will need all the protection and nurturing if the country is not going to be dragged back to the dark ages as has happened is so many other African countries, Zimbabwe being one such cursed nation.
MDC have had many opportunities to bring about meaningful democratic changes in Zimbabwe but have wasted them all. The best chance to deliver reforms came during the GNU when all MDC leaders were asked to do was to implement the reforms agreed in the Global Political Agreement (GPA). SADC leaders, who were the guarantor of the GPA, tried their best to get MDC to implement the reforms but were ignored.
MDC has been contesting elections they knew are flawed and would be rigged all these years and have lost each and everyone of these elections precisely because Zanu PF rigged the vote one way or the other. Of course, they contested the elections confident they would win, confident they had strategies to Win In Rigged Elections (WIRE) although they never gave the strategies the name WIRE.
The bottom line is MDC are dragging the nation into yet another election process knowing fully well that Zanu PF will rig the vote claiming they have “smarter strategies” to win the elections when all they have are the same failed strategies only this time they are giving the strategies a fancy name, WIRE.
If the people of Zimbabwe want to get out of this hell-hole Zanu PF has dragged us into and MDC have done their best to keep us there by giving false promises of having found a way out; then we must demand the implementation of the reforms before elections are held.
Least people forget, the people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect MDC politicians to bring democratic change and not these nonsensical promises of how to win rigged elections. We do not want rigged elections, we want free, fair and credible elections!
Vana Obert Gutu arikuwawata zvisina maturo neWIRE! (People like Obert Gutu are talking nonsense about this WIRE strategy!) How long are we going to listen to them!
Kenya had its golden opportunity to dismantle the Jommo Kenyatta dictatorship during the 2007 to 2012 GNU and Raila Odinga made the most of it. Kenya has put behind her the nightmare of corrupt and tyrannical rule and, with a bit of luck, will have strong democratic institution.
Zimbabwe had its golden chance to end the Zanu PF dictatorship during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Sadly, we failed to make the hay whilst the sun was shining. Tsvangirai failed to get even one reform implemented. We have wasted the last five years trying to get the reforms implemented but failed.
The only hope for getting the reforms implemented now is by insisting on the reforms before the elections.
It is clear that Zanu PF is not going to produce a verified voters' roll before the next elections given the unnecessary delays associated with the buying of the BVR kits and their delivery. A reformed ZEC would have been diligent enough to ensure this never happen. The call for implementing the reforms have been underlined.
Zimbabweans must have nothing to do with an election process they already know is rigged. People must insist on having the reforms implemented before the elections.
Post a Comment