“There is no point in holding
elections. For once everyone must boycott elections,” wrote Ben Paradza. He was
writing in response to the article “Mudede tells Rita Makarau to abandon the
biometric voter registration” by Themba Mthethwa in Bulawayo 24.
Well, sir; I agree with you
there 100%. As for everyone boycotting the elections that is easier said than
done but that is not to say it cannot be done. Here is one way of achieving
this goal; do not look to other to boycott the elections, you and your party,
ZUNDE, must boycott the elections.
ZUNDE must announce that the
party is boycotting the elections because it has finally accepted that holding
elections with no reforms in place is madness. The party will have nothing,
absolutely nothing, to do with the flawed elections Zanu PF is organising and
will focus on demanding the implementation of democratic reforms before the
elections.
“Let Zanu PF go to the polls
on its own and let the Mbekis of this world declare free and fair,” continued
Paradza.
I have to ask you to be
honest and respectful of historic facts, after all you are a Judge and Judges
are meant to respect facts. It was SADC leaders who repeatedly asked Morgan
Tsvangirai and his MDC friends to implement the democratic reforms throughout
the GNU only to be ignored. I do not remember you, Judge Paradza, ever asking
MDC leaders to keep their eyes on the ball and implement the reforms.
“If you go into elections
next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done!” SADC leaders warned
Tsvangirai and company in June 2013. Sadly, their warning fell on deaf ears.
Ever since ZUNDE decided to
join the rat race and contest next year’s elections although it was clear no
reforms would ever be implemented before the elections, you and your ZUNDE
colleagues have taken it upon yourselves to blame SADC for the GNU’s failure to
deliver free, fair and credible elections.
Everyone knows that it was
Tsvangirai and his MDC’s fault that not even one reform was implemented during
the GNU. They were “busy enjoying themselves during the GNU they forgot what
they were there for,” remarked one SADC leader soon after the rigged July 2013
elections in sheer exasperation at MDC.
ZUNDE has been very careful
not to criticize Tsvangirai and the other MDC leaders because the party was
seeking coalition partners in the coming elections. After all if ZUNDE was
going to contest flawed elections, for the few gravy train seats like everyone
else, the party too had to pretend the reforms were not important.
Just for the record, Judge
Paradza, not every SADC leader endorse Zimbabwe’s flawed July 2013 elections
free and fair; President Ian Khama, of Botswana refuse to do so. The other
leaders did, because if Zimbabwe’s corrupt and incompetent opposition decided
to contest the elections against their advice not to; what else did you want
SADC leaders to do.
The decision not contest
flawed elections is the obvious and common sense decision. ZUNDE, like everyone
else in Zimbabwe’s corrupt and incompetent opposition camp, is agonized over
the decision to boycott next year’s elections because you mesmerised by few
gravy train seats Mugabe is bungling.
SADC leaders can see what
Mugabe is doing, they are not so easily fooled, and that is exactly why they
advised MDC to boycott the July 2013 elections. They can see all the political
shenanigans Zanu PF has been playing to delay the purchase of the BVR system to
cover up for the stampede to follow. In the stampede Zanu PF will once again implant
many vote rigging tricks, fail to produce a verifiable voters’ roll, etc. have many in the opposition camp totally mesmerised.
Even if ZUNDE and everyone
else decide to contest next year’s regardless of ZEC’s failure to produce a
verifiable voters’ roll and all the other glaring vote rigging irregularities,
you can be rest assured that SADC leaders will not declare the sham elections
free and fair. SADC leaders know the continued political paralysis in Zimbabwe,
caused by the failure to hold free, fair and credible, is the root cause of the
country’s political instability and economic meltdown. SADC leaders know that
Zimbabwe is holding back the region and they must act or Mugabe will drag the
whole region into the abyss.
We can go through with the
flawed elections, but SADC leaders are not going to declare the sham elections
free and fair!
1 comment:
The decision to boycott elections is one must make on basis of principle or not at all. If someone has to look at what others are doing then it is more a peer pressure and not one based on conviction. There are some matters one would expect an individual to act out of strong convictions and refusing to contest flawed elections is certainly one on those instances.
Zimbabwe is in this political and economic mess because the country has had miserably few, if any at all, principled men and women in politics or any other field for that matter.
Instead of just announcing that ZUNDE will be boycotting elections Judge Paradza has to be certain other opposition parties are going to boycott the elections too. The fear of others contesting the elections and winning the few gravy train seats has forcing most of the opposition to contest. It is only the realisation that there is a heavy price to be paid by participating, beside the certainty of losing the elections, that is forcing some opposition parties to think twice about contesting.
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