We keep contesting flawed elections, believing ourselves wiser than King Solomon W Mukori

The opposition and those determined to contest regardless they will win the elections against whatever Zanu PF throws at them. They will accept that Zanu PF has been rigging elections and some even accept that the rigging has been so serious it is IMPOSSIBLE to win the rigged elections. Many block out all the supporting evidence of vote rigging to prove it is impossible to win because it is a bitter pill to swallow that one's best efforts are futile.

They are all united in believing that they can win regardless whatever Zanu PF tries to do.

They are refusing to consider the option of not contesting because they are single track minded. Not contesting makes good sense because there is evidence to prove 

1)     it is IMPOSSIBLE for Zanu PF to rig the vote and lose the vote and therefore it is insane to keep contesting the elections for 37 years expecting a different result. 

2)     By contest against the advice of SADC it is impossible for the latter to interfere even if they can see the blatant vote rigging because that is what we claimed to have strategies to defeat. 

3)     the opposition politicians know they will not win the elections and unseat Zanu PF, all they are after is the few seats the regime is offering as bait. The populous will not take part in the elections if they knew the truth and hence the reason the leaders continue to sell the public the dummy of winning rigged elections. 

Albert Einstein said, “insanity is repeating the same thing over and over expecting a different result.” The act of insanity can manifest itself in many ways.

a)     The mental patient watering the garden with a leaking bucket, knows that to water the garden she needs to carry water from point A to B using a bucket. The disconnect is that she is failing to realise that by the time she gets to B the bucket is empty. The people have been told a thousand times if they want to change the government they must vote. The disconnect here is their failure to see that the whole process is rigged. They become so single track minded they shut out everything and everyone else, they have all their attention on the objective the lose track of how many times they have tried and fail, that there could be other solutions, etc.

b)    Sometimes the mental patient will realise that the problem is the leaking bucket and propose a solution: instead of carrying the bucket in the hand, they will carry it on their head. The disconnect here is they failure to realise that the proposed solution does not address the leak. The call by some people for the opposition to unite is one example of a proposed solution that is not addressing the real problem – the vote rigging by Zanu PF.

c)     The wrong solution may be actively promoted by others for their own selfish reason. Zanu PF does not want the vote rigging to stop by implementing the reforms because they “will not reform themselves out of office”, they admitted. The opposition politicians have resolved to contest the elections regardless how flawed and illegal they happen to be as long as there is a chance of winning the few seats Zanu PF has been throwing away as bait to entice them to contest. The disconnect here is electorate who fail to realise that they are being used by both Zanu PF and the opposition to give credibility to an electoral process that will never deliver their desired object of regime change.

The greatest weakness in Zimbabwe society is that most people are ill informed, their understanding of what is going on is very superficial, at best. This is fertile ground for insanity and one, two or all three signs of insanity above are evidence among Zimbabweans. Zimbabweans think of themselves as some of the smartest people on earth such account as the country “having the highest rates of literacy”, have only made most of us big headed. We believe we know it all, especially our political leaders.

There is no one more insane than he who believe themselves wiser than the three wise men!

SADC leaders advised Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friend to implement the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections but the advice was ignored. MDC leaders failed to implement even one reform in five years of the GNU partly because Mugabe bribed them to forget the reforms. But mainly because MDC leaders are incompetent because even now with the benefit of hindsight, it is clear Tsvangirai and company have no clue what the reforms are about much less how they can be implemented.

At the end of the GNU with not even one reform in place, SADC leaders pleaded with Tsvangirai and company not to contest the 2013 elections.

“If you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done!” SADC warned MDC leaders at the Maputo summit in June 2013. But once again, Tsvangirai and company, wisest of the wise, ignored the warning and contested the flawed elections. The result, contrary to the MDC landslide victory Tsvangirai expected and promised the people, was a landslide Zanu PF victory. The regime blatantly rig the vote just as SADC leaders had warned would happen.

Many Zimbabweans are gearing to take part in next year’s elections although not even one reform has been implemented since the rigged July 2013 elections. There is evidence already that Zanu PF is rigging the elections. For example, the BVR exercise was started late and the whole process is chaos; it is evident the regime not produce a verified voters’ roll. The regime refused to produce a verified voters’ roll for the 2013 elections because it was the smoking gun to the many vote rigging tactics observed the year. The same is set to happen again next year!

Of course, it is insane to play any part in next year’s election knowing, as we all do, that the whole process is flawed and illegal. If only we can swallow our misplaced ego, accept we are not wiser than King Solomon and for once listen to SADC’s warning not to contest next year’s elections with no reforms. After 37 years, how many more years of rigged elections will it take before it finally dawns on us that we need to implement reforms before election!