Monday 2 October 2017

ZESN admits reforms "fall short" of elections demands but still lacks resolve to heed SADC advice N Garikai

The issue of implementing democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections has been on the national agenda for ever since the GNU years. The Global Political Agreement (GPA) that gave birth to the GNU was all about implementing a raft of democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections and not a repeat of the rigged elections of 2008.

As the GNU’s five-year term ended with not even one reform in place SADC leaders, who drafted the GPA and were it guarantor, did not hesitate to advise MDC leaders not to contest the 2013 elections with no reforms in place.

“If you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done!” SADC leaders warned Tsvangirai and company at the June 2013 SADC summit, according to Dr Ibbo Mandaza who was there.

Tsvangirai and company did not listen to SADC leaders’ warning and the went ahead and contested the July 2013 elections. It was only after Zanu PF had blatantly rigged the elections that MDC leaders seemed to come to their senses because they passed the party congress resolution of “No reform, no elections!”

I said, “seemed to come to their senses” because they have since conveniently forgotten the resolution; they are all tripping over each other in their rush to contest the elections even thou not even one reform was implemented.

So, in contesting next year’s elections with no reforms in place Tsvangirai and company are disregarding SADC’s advice not to contest, disregarding the bitter experience of the rigged July 2013 elections and disregarding MDC’s own party congress resolution of “No reform, no election!” Whereas the ordinary Zimbabwean would have looked to the country’s army of civic society organisation for advice on what to do given that no reforms were implemented and the elections will be rigged, once again. Sadly, there has been mixed messages and confusion from civic society.

"There have been some amendments to the Electoral Act but as ZESN we say they fall short; most of our laws have to be aligned to the Constitution,” commented Andrew Makoni, chairperson of Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN).

"The process has been painstakingly slow and there were just piecemeal adjustments. We still call for the alignment of these laws to the Constitution."

Everything is as clear as mud! What the people want to know is does ZESN believe Zanu PF is going to implement any of the reforms to ensure next year’s elections are free, fair and credible?

It is almost certain, with less than a year to go before the elections, that Zanu PF is not going to implement any reforms. Indeed, the party’s bigwigs like Professor Jonathan Moyo and VP Emerson Mnangagwa have already boasted the party will never implement any reforms. “Zanu PF will never reform itself out of office,” Professor Moyo said.

The futility of contesting elections knowing fully well the whole process is a farce is something no Zimbabwean with a half brain cannot continue to ignore. But ignoring the whole electoral process is a farce is exactly what ZESN is doing.

"As ZESN we are ready to deploy 2 000 educators who will work in various wards throughout the country. Since we have 1 950 wards, some of our educators would be mobile, hence cover as much ground as possible,” announced Makoni.

"While we might have wanted to start voter education as far back as possible, we could not do so as we had to be accredited by ZEC first and I am glad that only two weeks ago we were given the green light.”

It is not surprising that ZEC has left ZESN very little time to carry out its voter education properly; the whole voter registration has been delayed it is impossible to see how ZEC will produce a verifiable voters’ roll before the elections although this is a legal requirement. The regime failed to produce a verifiable 2013 voters’ roll and it turned out this was the smoking gun in many of its vote rigging exploits.

Zanu PF is already rigging the 2018 elections and hence the reasons everything is being rush to allow no time for auditing and producing a verifiable voters’ roll.

Whilst many people would want to believe that ZESN’s primary function is to help ensure the system deliver the people’s right to a meaningful democratic say in the governance of the country. By participating in the electoral process even when it is clear the process is flawed, ZESN giving the process the veneer of credibility.

It is extremely frustrating that, even now with the benefit of hindsight, Tsvangirai and his corrupt and incompetent friends in the opposition camp are still as keen as mustard to contest elections they know will be rigged. Worse still, one has to repeatedly probe the country’s GNOs to get them to bark; their laissez-faire approach human rights has turned them into toothless poodles in the tyrant’s hands instead of the fearless defenders of human rights the nation has been dying for.


What is the point ZESN condemning Zanu PF’s failure to implement even one meaningful democratic reforms when the Network still continue participating in the flawed and illegal electoral process giving it credibility!!!!!

8 comments:

Nomusa Garikai said...

Zanu PF is determined to rig next year's election as we can see from the chaotic BVR exercise underway. The regime cannot afford to produce a verifiable voters' roll because many of its vote rigging dirty tricks depend on fictitious voters casting multiple votes, real people being denied the vote, someone else voting using others' details, etc. The regime knows that producing a verifiable voters' roll will be a risk it cannot afford to take.

The regime is also determined to do everything it its power to create the impression that regardless of all the evidence the elections are being rigged this is still a credible democratic electoral process in which the opposition can still win! The regime was have a second team of CIOs whose work is to make sure the opposition does not boycott the election no matter what! People like Mbofana are in this team!

Mbofana will never take up the challenge and answer what this "large number" of opposition voters must be that ZEC will find IMPOSSIBLE to whittle down to ensure no-regime-change. Judging from the 2013 elections the regime has up graded its vote rigging tactics to ensure President Mugabe vote count starts at 50% and he only needs plus one vote to win! In 2013 the tyrant got 62%!

Patrick said...

SADC leaders were right, MDC should have implemented the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging the election. It was sheer folly and irresponsible on MDC leaders' part for failing to implement reforms on the idiotic belief that MDC would win the elections regards of "Zanu PF's vote rigging shenanigans". MDC leaders should have listened to the SADC leaders' last minute appeals for them to postpone the July 2013 elections until the reforms are implemented.

Zimbabwe has wasted many golden opportunities to end the Zanu PF dictatorship and put the nation on a firm democratic footing. If we stand firm and demand the implementation of the reforms and not waste time, energy and a single penny on another meaningless election.

There is no excuse in playing any part in this sorry excuse of an election in this day and age! 

Patrick said...

Zanu PF's financial clout from all the billions of dollars from looted diamonds and other sources is making it impossible to have a meaningful debate on anything since the regime's agents are everywhere with one intention and one intention only - to stifle all debate and brainwash us all into zombies here on earth to serve the tyrant's pleasure and whim!

Still in Zanu PF's desperate effort to build up the opposition stories of the party's attempts to build up the opposition will only remind as all that the whole electoral process is controlled by the regime.

Zanu PF is worried next year's elections will be dismissed as a sham because the opposition have been losing political credibility right, left and centre by the day. At this rate Zanu PF will have to frogmarch people to attend the opposition's rallies or Tsvangirai will be addressing no one at his star-rallies this time.

Patrick said...

The analysis is not complete without mentioning the bootlicking by the opposition especially during the GNU when they were falling over each other to praise President Mugabe. Biti called the murderous tyrant the "fountain of wisdom, the unflappable father of the nation." Even foul-language Misihairambi-Mushonga said she was so impressed with the tyrant "she was speechless". One can only imagine what he did!  

Zimbabwe is in this political mess because of the bootlicking Zanu PF idiots but it is the bootlicking MDC idiots who are keeping us stuck in this mess! It is the corrupt and incompetent MDC who failed to get even one reform implemented during the GNU and who are today dragging the nation into yet another foolish election everyone know that Zanu PF is already rigging.

Patrick said...

Obert Gutu ever since MDC lost the July 2013 elections you and your friends have suddenly become more attentive to what Zanu PF is doing especially trivial matters. Why did you fail to implement even one democratic reform during the GNU and that would have ended the Zanu PF dictatorship once and once for all.

You are desperate to get back on the gravy train you are fishing for the spotlight whenever you can. You are so desperate for a seat on the gravy train you lot are dragging the nation into yet another utterly pointless election process in which we all know the election result will be another Zanu PF landslide victory just for the sake of the few seats Zanu PF gives away to entice you to participate.

Forget the corruption commission, there is nothing anyone can do to stop Zanu PF doing as the please right now, the focus is making sure we have reforms BEFORE the next elections. If you have nothing to say about the reforms then shut your trap!

Patrick said...

How sad that, even now with the benefit of hindsight, someone like Mutambara should still be blaming others for Zimbabwe's crisis when it was he and his fellow MDC friends who resisted pressure from SADC leaders to implement the democratic changes that would have ended the Zimbabwe crisis.

Africans, Mutambara said, should be much more proactive in politics and demand selfless leaders who have vision, strategy and an ability to execute.

“[Mahatma] Gandhi once said ‘be the change that you wish to see in the world’…we should not sit on the sidelines and complain about what is happening and do nothing. We need to act and work together, through organisations like SADC, and the African Union. Unity is strength.”

There goes another Mugabe, giving speeches full of sound and fury but signifying nothing.

The real tragedy of Africa is that too many Africans have failed to raise their understand of issues above the superficial level and thus have been bowled over again and again by the utter nonsense from Africa's egotistic empty drums like Mugabe and Mutambara.

Only an idiot would buy Mutambara's book and, no doubt, there have been some takers already!

Zimbabwe is not in this economic and political hell-hole by accident; the country has more than its fair share of mind numbing idiots!

Zimbabwe Light said...

There are stories that some #Tanjamuka activists have been paid fat cheques by Zanu PF one should not be surprised that many other NGOs like Heal Zimbabwe Trust and ZESN are heavily infiltrated by the regime. Judging by their single-minded determination to make a big song and dance about trivial issues but never ever address the real big issues like implementing the democratic reforms one can see the regime is certainly getting value for money.


You are right, "one has to repeatedly probe these NGOs to get them to bark" but do not give up keep probing them. The more organisation like ZESN failed to address the big issues the more they are losing political credibility.

ZESN is employing 2000 educators for the four months of the BVR exercise and will no doubt keep them to do the monitoring of the rest of the election process, say another five months. Even if they are just paid a modest $5 a day it all adds up. 9 months x 30 days x $5 x 2000 individual = $ 2 700 000.

So, who is paying ZESN knowing fully well the result of the election is a landslide victory for His Excellence Comrade Robert Gabriel Mugabe? And to keep face ZESN will report of some irregularities which marred the elections but carefully avoid saying the elections were rigged. The answer to the question must be only somehow who has an invested interest in ensuring His Excellence rigs the vote and get away with it scot-free again will consider the $2.7 million well spent!

In February 2016, His Excellence admitted that $15 billion in diamond revenue was “swindled”. No one has ever been arrested, not a single dollar has ever been recovered and, worse still, the Minister of Finance has since admitted that government is still getting 1/6 of the diamond revenue it expected. So, the swindling is still taking place and His Excellence knows exactly who the swindlers are.

No doubt spending $2.7 million funding an organisation like ZESN would be considered a very wise investment by the swindlers! The swindler can bankroll 100 or even 10 000 of these organisations like ZESN, NIKUV (the Israeli company specializing in corrupting the voters’ roll that Zanu PF has employed in the past and are on the regime’s pay right now); $ 27 billion will buy the swindlers another five more years to carry on with the swindling. Even at a modest $2 billion per month for five years, the swindlers will earn a cool $ 120 billion!

It is the activities of such dodgy organisations like ZESN and NIKUV that underlines the folly of contesting the flawed elections; the regime’s financial resources are so huge it is nonsensical to even try to compare them with those of the impoverished oppositions. It is a mockery of the Zimbabwean people that the wealth robbed from them should then be used to rob them of their freedoms and basic human rights.

The only logical way to break the vicious cycle the nation found itself caught up in is by insisting in implementing the reforms BEFORE holding the elections. Failure to stop the elections, then make such the process is declared a sham!

Zimbabwe Light said...

Zanu PF has access to billions of dollars from all the looting that has been taking place in Marange and the regime has used the money to bankroll all manner of vote rigging and nefarious activities including paying NIKUV $10 million to corrupt the 2013 voters' roll. The regime can afford to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars a month each to 10 or 20 agents in every opposition party, NGO, etc. in the country whose activities the regime want to influence. 

Those who are arguing that next year’s elections should go ahead without implementing the reforms designed to force political parties to reveal the source of the funds, among many other things, are politically naïve. Of course, it will be naïve to fail to acknowledge that many of those insisting that the elections must go ahead are the paid Zanu PF agents!

#Tajamuka is one of the many local activist organisation who have been very careful to avoid the tough issue of boycotting the elections if the regime failed to deliver even on such common sense basic requirements as a verifiable voters’ roll. Tajamuka was been quick off the mark of condemning Zanu PF on wishy-washy issues but shied away from the big issues and so it is no surprise to read that the organisation was heavily infiltrated by Zanu PF.

Zanu PF’s pervasive influence in the opposition camp and civic society is a reality that can only be dealt with by implementing the democratic reforms and force the wholesale looting to stop. It is a nonsense that millions of Zimbabweans should be living in abject poverty whilst the wealth stolen from them is being used to bankroll the very activities keeping the people in poverty and the brutal regime in power.

The only sure way to break the vicious cycle we caught up in is to demand the reform BEFORE elections!