Every time Lovemore Madhuku opens his mouth; more often than not, he has left one in no doubt that he is not irrational. He has been at it again.
“The legitimacy of the president or government is not derived from you and me, but from the law,” he argued.
“The day the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) chairperson announced that he had won the election and declared him as such, his legitimacy was dealt with.
“We are a constitutional democratic country and therefore we abide by whatever decision the law makes.”
The constitution and the law are double edged swords that cut both ways it is not enough that we the citizens must abide by the constitution those in positions of power and authority too must abide by the constitution and laws of the land. ZEC was entrusted with the power and responsible to organise and deliver free, fair and credible elections and it failed to do so.
“The right to an effective legal remedy was not adequately provided for, there is no equal suffrage and shortcomings in the registration of voters somewhat compromised universal and equal suffrage,” wrote the EU Election Observer Mission in its final report.
“Notably, major shortcomings in the pre-election environment impacted on the free expression of the will of electors, state resources were misused in favour of the incumbent and coverage by state media was heavily biased in favour of the ruling party. Further, the electoral commission lacked full independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner.
“The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability. Finally, the restrictions on political freedoms, the excessive use of force by security forces and abuses of human rights in the post-election period undermined the corresponding positive aspects during the pre-election campaign.
“As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards.”
ZEC failed to release something as basic as a verified voters’ roll, for Pete’s sake. It is a crying shame that Professor Lovemore Madhuku, Nelson Chamisa or one of the other 21 opposition presidential candidates; to say nothing of the thousands in the senatorial, parliamentary and local election races; asked why ZEC had failed to produce a verified voters’ roll although this was a constitutional requirement.
All Zimbabwe’s opposition candidates have known for years that without first implementing the democratic reforms designed to restoring the independence of state institutions like ZEC, Zanu PF will blatantly rig the elections.
“Those are not power-sharing talks, but a platform to share and exchange ideas with government,” admitted Madhuku.
“As opposition, we are using this to ensure we raise our demands in terms of economic reforms and political reforms in a civilised manner.”
So Madhuku is confirming the need for meaningful democratic reforms as a pre-requisite for free, fair and credible elections. The opposition have participated in these flawed and illegal elections out of greed.
“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 (2013) elections,” explained David Coltart, a leading opposition leader.
“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.”
“Mnangagwa’s legitimacy is derived from the law!” How so, when the electoral process was flawed and illegal!
8 comments:
This is nonsense! How can Mnangagwa derive his legitimacy from the law when the whole process was flawed and illegal. Madhuku acknowledges the need for political reforms as a pre-requisite for free, fair and credible elections.
“As opposition, we are using this (dialogue) to ensure we raise our demands in terms of economic reforms and political reforms in a civilised manner,” said Madhuku.
Why would you want political reforms if the last elections were free, fair and credible and everything was above board!
Mnangagwa is illegitimate because last year's elections were flawed and illegal. After 38 years of rigged elections, Zanu PF has no mandate to govern. Enough is enough; Zanu PF must step down!
These talks are a complete waste of time. Madhuku's participation in these talks is giving Mnangagwa the modicum of legitimacy just as they did by participating in last year's elections in the first place!
Mnangagwa says he is not worried about Chamisa's globe-trotting seeking SADC support for his claim as the winner of last year's elections.
The elections were rigged and Chamisa's claim that he won is just as foolish as Mnangagwa's own claim. He should be be asking for Zanu PF to step down and not waste time trying to seize power for himself.
Madhuku is not just a lawyer but a lawyer lecturer, which means he must have been a lawyer a cut above the others, and yet he is the one pretending last year's elections were free, fair and credible. He is claiming Mnangagwa's legitimacy is derived from the law when the whole election process was a litany of flaws and illegalities. Madhuku, Chamisa and all the other opposition candidate ignore even the common sense and fundamental requirement to release a verified voters' roll. Why?
Greed! As long as Zanu PF offers the opposition a few gravy train seats, Madhuku et al will participate in these elections regardless how flawed and illegal the process gets.
Ever since 2013 when it became clear that MDC leaders had failed to implement even one democratic reform in five years; the nation should have known that the opposition had sold-out and they can never be trusted to implement the democratic reforms and deliver free, fair and credible elections.
Madhuku started off as a champion fighting for a democratic constitution but now he is the one fighting for the acceptance of an illegitimate regime just because he has been offered a bribe. Chamisa is waiting in the wings to endorse Mnangagwa's legitimacy as soon as he too is offered a bribe.
Zimbabwe is in a serious political and economic mess because of 38 years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF rule. The starting point out of the mess is for Zanu PF to step down, the regime has no democratic mandate to govern but most important of all the nation needs the political space to appoint a interim administration that will be tasked to implement the necessary reforms for free, fair and credible elections.
"Zimbabwe izumbu rakapinda nyoka!" (Zimbabwe is like a chicken coop that was raided by a snake!) as one would say in Shona. One does not replace the dead chickens without first making sure the snake is not hiding in the coop and repairing the coop to ensure this will never happen again. Zimbabwe will never ever recover whilst the country remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt and and vote rigging Zanu PF thugs.
Idiots like Madhuku can endorse Mnangagwa as legitimate, we know he has been bribed to do so. Zimbabwe's opposition leaders have sold-out and we must ignore them!
Elections are judged free, fair and credible on the basis of the process being seen as having been legal with no flaws including what officials such as ZEC do and not just what the officials such as ZEC says! ZEC failed to release verified voters' roll although this is a legal requirement, for example. It is foolish for us to judge the process legal just because a corrupt ZEC decided to sweep its own flaws and illegalities under the carpet!
Zanu PF blatantly rigged last year's elections and this is a historic fact that no propaganda and spin can ever change.
By rigging the elections Mnangagwa has also confirmed that Zimbabwe is still a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs. No one likes to do business with thugs and hence the reason why Zimbabwe's economic meltdown is getting worse.
It is the worsening economic meltdown that is forcing Mnangagwa to hold these dialogue in the hope he come up with something to camouflage the Zanu PF dictatorship. No one is going to be fooled by the addition of one or two opposition candidate in his cabinet. The opposition members are fighting each other to be first in line for the gravy train seats.
The only way out is for Mnangagwa and his junta to step down and step down they will!
@ Arthur
We know that the process was fake so ED is heading a fake government, with a fake cabinet, fake judiciary, fake currency, fake economy etc., the best was is for him to listen to what Chamisa wants.
I agree with you on the fake government, fake cabinet, etc. I would have said “fake opposition” too. MDC call themselves the movement for democratic change and yet they have not brought about even one democratic change in all their 19 years on the political stage!
1000 attend the funeral of the four burnt alive in SA’s xenophobia attack.
This is tragic the more so since it could have been easily avoided if the country has not sunk to these depths of economic despair!
@ Robert Sigauke
“There is certainly no prize for predicting the reaction of the opposition alliance to the outcome of the elections, and of course the constitutional court challenge. After all, we have been made to believe elections will only be free and fair when the opposing side wins. Wilbert Mukori has absolutely done enough justice to the incidence of the opposition's behaviour of sheepishly going into elections in full glare of conditions that do not favour the holding of free and fair elections. Them only crying foul after the fact, with the ruling party in glee of legitimacy,” you wrote last year.
“The lessons of the 2013 elections were important in so many ways, one being that of a costly miscalculation to believe that the sheer numbers would overwhelm any rigging machinery that would have been in place. There is little or no evidence to date that the ruling party even employed any rigging mechanism.”
I agree with you 100% on what you said above except the last bit. There is overwhelming evidence that the 2013 elections were rigged. There is evidence of gerrymandering in the voter registration exercise, regime refuse to release a verified voters’ roll, there was no free public media, the regime increase the number of polling stations from 2 000 in 2008 to 9 000 and there 11 000 in 2013 and 2018 respectively, there is evidence of multiple voting, etc., etc.
I suggest that you read David Coltart’s book The Struggle Continues 50 years of tyranny in Zimbabwe in which he admits the opposition was aware Zanu PF was going to rig the 2013 elections and, most significantly of all, admits that it was greed that forced the opposition to participate in the elections regardless of all the evidence the elections were flawed and illegal.
Zimbabwe's opposition politicians are breathtakingly corrupt, incompetent and sell-out. They participated in last year's elections even when it was crystal clear Mnangagwa had no intention of honouring his promise to hold free, fair and credible elections. They knew he would give away a few gravy train seats just as Zanu PF had done in the past and it was these the opposition was after.
Of course, Zanu PF rigged last year's elections, the party no democratic mandate to govern, it is illegitimate. PERIOD!
Having participated in the flawed and illegal elections our village idiots opposition leaders cannot condemn the rigged elections and so they have all endorsed the vote-rigging Mnangagwa and Zanu PF as legitimate. Abednico Bhebhe confirms Mnangagwa's legitimacy in one sentence and in the next talks of EU, America, etc. as having "recognized" Mnangagwa as if the two words mean the same thing and therefore interchangeable. Of course, none of these outsiders have dared to endorse Mnangagwa as legitimate hence the reason the British and the Americans have broken the re-engagement and maintained the targeted sanctions, as you correctly pointed out.
By foolishly endorsing Mnangagwa and Zanu PF as legitimate the opposition are hoping this would put them in good books with Zanu PF for any grave train scraps! The endorsement is coming at great price to the nation in that it is giving Zanu PF the confidence to hang on to power till 2023. Another four and years of this economic chaos is frightful enough but how much worse if we added yet another five years! If Zanu PF is in power in 2023 the party will rig that year's elections too!
The only way out of the political and economic mess is for Zanu PF to step down and it is infuriating that we not only have to fight against Mnangagwa and his junta for meaningful democratic change but must also fight Chamisa, Khope, Biti, etc. too, the very people the nation risked life and limb to elect into power on the promise they will deliver democratic change.
But so be it, we will fight Mnangagwa, his corrupt and vote rigging tyrannical Zanu PF junta and their new allays the corrupt, incompetent and sell-out opposition!
Zanu PF is illegitimate and it must step down - that is not negotiable!
Post a Comment