“A coalition can trump Mugabe and
Zanu PF in 2018” argued Moses Chamboko in The Zimbabwean. The article was inspired
by the events in America. Zimbabwe’s electoral system and that of America are
as different as chalk and cheese as Chamboko readily admitted.
“In 2008, it took the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission (ZEC) six weeks to release the results of an election in
which only 3.2 million people had voted,” he wrote. “Given that last week’s
American election attracted 133 million voters, going by their 2008 counting
rate, it would take ZEC five years to count these votes, by which time another
election would be due!”
He pointed out other glaring
difference between the US elections and ours; how no one was ever harassed,
beaten much less killed to force the people to vote one way and not the other;
etc.
So the challenge in Zimbabwe is
how to stop Zanu PF election shenanigans and machinations which have stopped
the trumping of Mugabe and Zanu PF again and again already!
“We have two tools to make this
happen:” offered Chamboko “register to vote in huge numbers and turning up to
vote as well as making progress on the coalition front.”
Are we not going round and round
in circles here?
How will registering and voting
in huge numbers force ZEC Officials to count any faster than the six weeks and,
more significantly, stop them “cooking” the results. We all know that it took six
weeks to announce the result, as contrast to counting the votes; ZEC finished
the counting in less than 24 hours. However, ZEC could not announce the result
because President Mugabe did not want the true count known and accept defeat.
Still, he could not instruct ZEC
to announce the “cooked up” figures straight away either. He was not sure if MDC
had carefully collated the election results themselves and would therefore successful
challenge the cooked up figure in a court of law. Archbishop Desmond Tutu
suggested that MDC should demand the release of the results but Tsvangirai in
his infantile wisdom disregarded the advice. After six weeks of diddling and stringing
MDC along it was clear there was total confusion in the MDC camp and they would
accept whatever result ZEC announced. The cooked results showed there was no
clear winner and so a run-off would be required.
President Mugabe had used the six
weeks to perfect his operation “Mavhotera Papi!” (Whom did you vote for!) All
the security services were mobilized to back the war veterans, the storm
troopers spear heading the operation; civilians were harassed, beaten, raped
and over 500 killed in a ruthless move to force the people to vote for Mugabe
in the run-off.
The violence was so bad Tsvangirai
was forced to withdraw from the race; the voters were herded into Polling Stations
like castle and instructed whom they should vote for; Mugabe got 98% or some
such figure of the vote. ZEC took less than 24 hours to count the votes and
announced the results! Proof, ZEC officials have no problem counting the votes
as long as the result reaffirms the no regime change mantra!
During one unguarded moment
President Mugabe bleated out that Tsvangirai had gunned 73% of the votes in the
March 2008 vote. So as long as it is a Zanu PF controlled ZEC that is tasked to
count and announce the votes the talk of trumping Mugabe and Zanu PF is a waste
of time!
Zimbabwe’s whole electoral
process is geared to deliver no regime change and the challenge before us is to
implement all the democratic reforms designed to end the tyrannical controls
ZanuPF has over not only ZEC officials but other State Institutions like the
Police, Army, CIO, Judiciary, Public Media, etc. to force them to deliver free,
fair and credible elections.
The Zanu PF vote rigging machine
is very well funded and very sophisticated, it is five or ten blocks ahead of
the stone-broke, corrupt and incompetent opposition simpletons. We must therefore
concentrate all our efforts on demanding the implementation of all the
democratic reforms not wasting time, money and space listening to simpletons second
guessing the weaknesses of the Zanu PF vote-rigging juggernaut!
In 2013 Tsvangirai refused to
listen to SADC leaders who warned against taking part in the elections with not
even one reform implemented. Mr. Know-It-All did not listen and we all know the
elections were blatantly rigged and landed us all in this political and
economic nightmare. We would be very foolish indeed if we went into the next
elections again with not even one reform implemented on the basis on a half-cock
ZUNDE plan of mass voter registration and uniting an opposition we already know
hopelessly corrupt and incompetent.
By noon of voting day in 2013
Tsvangirai was already admitting the elections were rigged; we will be foolish
to let that happen again in 2018.
Mugabe has been rigging elections
for the last 36 years and yet time and time again we have gone into election
knowing the elections will be rigged and lo behold the elections were rigged
every time.
The political and economic
consequence of another rigged Zimbabwe election in 2018 will cause unthinkable
suffering, worse than what we are seeing in the country today. SA will beat President
Trump in building a border by building one to stop the hordes of Zimbabwean
economic and political refugees flooding across the Limpopo River!
A lot has been said about America’s
recent elections but no one will dispute that they were free, fair and credible
and thus a true reflection of the will of the people. The same is true of
America’s past elections. To therefore hope that Zimbabwe’s next elections will
too be a true reflection of the democratic will of the majority of Zimbabweans
knowing fully well that Zanu PF will rig the elections just as they have done
in the past is plain foolish!
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