When it comes to reforms and elections there are four basic
scenarios the Zimbabwean people must be aware of. These can be present in the
form of questions and answers:
a) Is it possible to have
free, fair and credible elections without implementing any of the 2008 GPA
democratic reforms?
Answer: it is impossible to hold free and fair elections
without implement the democratic reform.
For anyone to ask this question it shows they have never
appreciated what the GPA was about and so it is worthwhile explaining this
before going any further. There are eight key points one has to understand
about the Global Political Agreement (GPA):
1) Mugabe claimed electoral victory in Zimbabwe’s July 2008
presidential run-off but because of the wanton violence none of the outside
elections observers including SADC and AU endorse the result as free, fair and
credible. This created a serious legitimacy problem for Mugabe.
2)
Following months of negotiations it was finally
agreed, in the GPA, that the three main political parties Zanu PF led by Robert
Mugabe, MDC-T led by Tsvangirai and MDC-M led by Mutambara would form a
Government of Nation Unity (GNU). SADC was to be the guarantor of the agreement
whose punishment would be to withdrawal legitimacy if any of the parties in the
GNU failed to honour the terms of the GPA.
3) The GPA stipulated that the GNU would implement a raft of
democratic reforms include security sector, media, judiciary reforms, and to
draft a new democratic constitution which would be submitted to the people of
Zimbabwe for approval in a referendum. These were agreed were the minimum
requirements for free, fair and credible elections and thus prevent the repeat
of the vote rigging and wanton violence of previous elections.
4)
The GNU was supposed to last for 18 months but
lasted for 60 months instead; enough time for the GNU to have carried out its
set tasks.
5)
Sadly not even one democratic reform was
implemented at the end of the GNU. This task was for Tsvangirai and his MDC
friends to do and Mugabe bribed them into doing nothing much to the
disappointment of SADC and everyone else who wanted to see democratic change in
the country.
6)
The new constitution was weak and feeble since
it was designed to accommodate the undemocratic practices which were still in
place since no democratic reforms had been implemented.
7) The people were not paying attention to what was happening
and so they failed to apply the necessary pressure to force the implementation
of the reforms. As for the new constitution they believe MDC lies that it would
deliver free and fair elections without even reading it for themselves.
8)
Mugabe went on to blatantly rig the July 2013
elections to mark the end of the GPA, SADC washed its hands of Zimbabwe.
So the fuller answer to the question can there be free, fair
and credible elections with no reforms implemented; the answer is as long as Mugabe and Zanu PF
retain total and undemocratic control of the Police, Media, Judiciary, ZEC,
etc. they will continued to use violence and dirty tricks to rig the vote.
B) Will implementing Tsvangirai’s proposed electoral laws,
MDC-T’s National Electoral Reform Agenda (NERA), be enough to deliver free,
fair and credible elections!
Answer: No NERA seeks to align existing laws to the new
constitution which, as stated in 6) above, is itself a weak constitution and
thus inadequate for free and fair.
c) If the next elections are held in the present one-party
dictatorship conditions, is there any chance of getting the new regime to
implement all the GPA reforms so that future elections are free, fair and
credible.
Answer: No chance! Whoever wins the next elections would want
the dictatorial powers to consolidate their own political power.
Dictatorial powers are to politics what corruption is to the
economy. We have failed to eradicate corruption because whilst everyone
denounces it whilst they still seeking power, once in power it would be in
their power to deal with corruption but also to benefit from it most people
always end up doing the latter. All those contesting the next elections
appreciate Mugabe’s dictatorial powers and they would all want those powers for
themselves.
d) Is there any hope, any hope at all, of forcing the
implementation of the GPA reform so the next elections are free, fair and
credible.
Answer: Yes there is. Mugabe has failed to rig economic
recovery and the worsening economic meltdown is unsustainable; unemployment is
already at 90% plus, millions are living in serious abject poverty –the type
that is killing its victims, most cities and towns have no clean running water,
etc. The situation is getting worse and not better.
4 comments:
@ John Mukumbo
“While ZANU PF is getting down in business preparing for the 2018 harmonised elections through coming up with tangible projects that are being implemented throughout the country for the benefit of the electorate,” you said.
You need you mouth washed with bleach for talking such nauseating s***t! With unemployment seating at 90% plus and none of Mugabe’s 2.2 million new jobs coming up you may be the ty-rant’s paid apologist but that does not give you the right to insult the millions out of work!
The only thing Zanu PF will be doing in preparation for the 2018 elections is preparing its vote rigging schemes and it storm trooper thugs who will harassing, beating, raping and even murdering people.
With the national economy in total meltdown and Zanu PF imploding it is looking increasing un-likely that the regime's reign will last till 2018. Regime change is in the air!
People First is reportedly going around fishing members from other parties including Zanu PF.
These must be tough days for these Zanu PF thugs "should I say yes or should I say no!" They know the purging in the party is not yet over and they are marked. On the other hand People First will probably never come to much given it is being led by some of the most incompetent leaders. Even during the Zanu PF days Mujuru, Mutasa, Gumbo, etc. were dead weight!
The truth is no one in Zanu PF or PF have any political future. They would all be learning the skills of making the traditional hoe right now if the MDC village idiots had implemented the democratic reforms during the GNU. The reforms will now be implemented and none of these thugs have a chance of being elected in free, fair and credible elections.
Some people go around with their eyes closed otherwise they would know by now that the game is up; there is going to be free, fair and credible elections and regime change!
@ Choto
People do not have power to force the implementation of the reforms because they are ignorant, they do not know what the reforms are, why we need them and how they can be implemented. If the people know what the reforms were about during the GNU then they would have been on MDC's case and forced the village idiots to act.
So the first thing to do to empower the people to demand the implementation of the reforms is to educate them and that is exactly what I and a few others have been doing. I believe we are making progress a lot more people today equate free, fair and credible elections to implementing the GPA reforms! There is still a lot of work to do but we are getting there. We will get there!
@ Yamamoto
Chinamasa is right to say the nation has a lot of money, we do. In 2012 Partnership Africa Canada reported than Mugabe pocketed a cool $2 billion from his share of the looting going on in Marange.
Tendai Biti, then Minister of Finance, complained that he only received $400 million in revenue from Marange diamond mining activities when he expected $900 million. Although the looting and plunder in Marange has stepped up several gears Finance Minister Chinamasa last years did not get a single dollar from Marange.
Zimbabwe is certainly filthy rich the problem is most of the money is ending up in the pockets of a few. So according to Ken Yamamoto Mugabe still continues to take bags full of cash, sharing with the nation the $3.8 billion national budget whilst keeping the $2 billion to himself!
This nation owes it to itself and posterity to thoroughly investigate what this Mugabe regime has been up to. It would be criminal negligence not to!
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