Be warned Zimbabweans! Hopewell Chin’ono has taken leave of his senses. There is nothing more disconcerting and dangerous that an intellectual who has lost his marbles. Chin’ono must have lost all his marbles!
“There is one problem for the opposition, there is NO voters roll,” he posted on Twitter, commenting on the upcoming 2023 elections.
“An election is a voters roll, polling agents and resources. Without a Voters Roll, the election is already rigged.
“However the opposition should participate regardless.
“As Professor Steven Levitsky says in his book, How Democracies Die, opposition parties should always compete regardless of the electoral conditions.”
I don’t care who Professor Steven Levitsky, this is nonsense because it flies in the face of logic. What is the point of having rules to ensure elections are free, fair and credible if all the parties involved can disregard the laws and suffer no consequences?
For Zanu PF, the ultimate censor for failing to hold free and fair elections would be to deny the party political legitimacy. This is exactly what happened in 2008 when SADC and AU, for once, refused to grant Mugabe and his cronies legitimacy because of the blatant cheating and wanton violence in the 2008 elections.
The primary purpose of the 2008 to 2013 GNU was to implement the democratic reforms to stop the repeat of the blatant cheating and wanton violence of 2008. Alas! Not even one token reform was implemented in five years of the GNU. Not one! Why?
Mugabe bribed Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends with the trappings of high office: very generous salaries and allowances, E-class Mercedes Benz limos for the ministers, a US$4 million mansion for Tsvangirai, etc., etc. And to show their appreciation, MDC leaders throw reforms out of the window. There you are, Mugabe had his own ready made bogus opposition.
Tsvangirai and his MDC friends lost all political credibility when they failed to implement even one reform during the GNU. It was Zimbabwe’s get-out-of-jail card and they wasted because of greed and breath-taking incompetence. They have compounded the problem by participating in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy for the same reasons - greed and breath-taking incompetence.
“If they (opposition) don’t (participate), dictatorships will always have bogus opposition leaders like Douglas Mwonzora to use in order to create a false image of opposition politics,” continued the half-shilling Chin’ono.
Mwonzora played his part in the selling out on reforms and participating in flawed elections out of greed but so too did all the other leaders like Chamisa, Coltart and Biti. All MDC leaders who casted off their MDC regalia for the CCC regalia have been cleansed of MDC treasonous betrayals. How naive! Does a cobra seize being a deadly snake just because it has shed off its old skin?
“The trick is in getting as many people registered to vote to make rigging harder,” continued the demented Chin’ono.
This is just giving credence to a rat race in which there can only be one winner - the regime. ZEC has raised the bar to voter registration for the opposition supporters, they harder they have tried to register the higher the bar has been raised.
In his book, David Coltart admitted the sheer madness of participating in flawed 2013 elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy. More significantly, he explained why he and his MDC friends participated then and have been doing so ever since - 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,” confessed Coltart in his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe.
“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.”
The very notion of “winning rigged elections” is an oxymoronic nonsense granting Zanu PF carte blanche powers to rig elections. And the people’s democratic right to free elections is reduced to the Herculean task of wrestling power from the regime. after another. Zanu PF does not have the right to rig elections and never did and to suggest otherwise is an outrage.
“Your vote matters, use it!” Yeah right! Tell that to the millions of rural voters corralled and frogmarched to vote for Zanu PF.
Even after 43 years of the mafiosi Zanu PF rigging elections we still don’t have the common sense to realise the insanity participating flawed to give Zanu PF legitimacy and perpetuating our own suffering.
What will it take for us to finally realise we are not going to get out of this economic and political mess without implementing the democratic reforms? What will it take to end this insanity of participating in flawed elections!!!!
2 comments:
OPPOSITION United Zimbabwe Alliance (UZA) has said its members were recently attacked by suspected Zanu-PF members while it was conducting a citizen engagement exercise in Chitungwiza North.
In a statement the opposition party which is led by presidential candidate Elisabeth Valerio said it has since engaged the police.
“Members of the United Zimbabwe Alliance (UZA) were violently abducted in Chitungwiza North on 11 May 2023 by suspected ZANU-PF thugs. Our party members, who were peacefully engaging citizens ahead of the elections, were attacked and injured,” the party said in a statement.
It further alleged that the suspects were driving a black Honda fit, before attacking UZA leaders using weapons.
“The ear of one of our party members was cut with pliers. The victims have since filed a police report at Harare Central Police Station. We hope that the culprits will be brought to book and will face the full weight of the law.
“The suspected ZANU-PF members, one of whom is said to be an aspiring MP candidate, attempted to abduct our team of five members. The culprits hijacked our party vehicle and drove our members an estimated 11km out of Chitungwiza in an abduction attempt. They also robbed our members of their cash, cell phones, and other personal items,” the party fumed.
What is both annoying and tragic here is we have all known that Zanu PF has carte blanche powers to rig elections. The elections are so flawed it really nonsense to pretend they are free and fair, the 2008 elections settled that question beyond all reasonable doubt.
SADC leaders devised the 2008 to 2013 GNU whose primary purpose was to implement the democratic reforms and take away Zanu PF’s carte blanche vote rigging powers. Not even one meaningful reform was implemented and, worse still, the opposition has been participating in these flawed elections knowing fully well that doing so would only give Zanu PF legitimacy. They have participated regardless out of greed.
Last year Mnangagwa increased the allowance to MPs by US$ 40 000 housing allowance over and above the US$ 60 000 for a car plus the other allowances and generous salary. Losers of the presidential race get a car plus other benefits from POLAD.
He has whetted the opposition’s appetites and they will participate in these elections regardless how flawed the process gets. They get the few gravy train seats and nations pays for in suffering the consequence of perpetuating the dictatorship and forfeiting yet another chance to end it.
@ Tsoka
“My friend your understanding of politics leaves a lot to be desired. You meed a certain temperament to be a politician. This is a life and death situation. You have to box clever. You have been forever talking of reforms as if you reckon Zanu PF was willing to reform itself out of power. These gorillas have self entitlement because they went to war.”
I totally agree with you that we cannot expect Zanu PF to reform itself out of office or stop using its carte blanche powers to rig elections to stay in power.
I hope you will agree with me that the 2008 to 2013 GNU was a golden opportunity for MDC to implement the democratic reforms and stop Zanu PF rigging elections. The question then is why did they fail to implement even one token reform in five years?
The more enlightened opposition leaders like David Coltart and Tendai Biti have admitted it is foolish to keep participating in elections processes that are so flawed the rational thing to do is to boycott. They only reason they have continued participating is greed, as Coltart confessed.
We can pretend all we want that the CCC are still fighting for reforms, free elections and good governance. The reality is they sold out on reforms during the GNU and have since been participating in flawed elections out of greed. The people have to accept this reality for them to finally realise they are being conned!
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