“Zimbabwe’s opposition, notably the MDC –T, have lost all political credibility they principle function now is to give token opposition to Zanu PF to create the illusion Zimbabwe is still a multiparty democracy. An affable smoke screen behind which to hide the corrupt and vote rigging Zanu PF de facto one party dictatorship,” some people have argued. Up to now, I have dismissed these views as over the top but now I am not sure!
“The MDC has always been prepared for these elections and in fact, ever since the last harmonised elections that were held in July, 2013, we have been oiling our party machinery to ensure that this year’s elections will be a walk over for us,” wrote MDC-T spokesman Obert Gutu, in response to Present Mnangagwa’s announcement.
“Whilst the Mnangagwa administration has been persistently stating that this year’s elections will be free and fair, the situation that obtains on the ground points to a totally different scenario. For instance, in virtually all the country’s rural areas, people have been forced to surrender the serial numbers of their biometric voter registration slips to their local village heads and Zanu PF officials.”
Spokesman Gutu went on to write about other situations such as the failure to reform the public media so the opposition can too enjoy equal coverage and thus making sure the voters are well informed of the electoral choices before them.
There are so many pertinent questions one would want MDC-T leaders to answer:
1) If MDC-T was indeed “always prepared” for these elections, then why are these very serious electoral irregularities still happening?
2) Mr Gutu clearly expects these election irregularities to be resolved before the election as stated in the title of his statement; “Electoral malpractices must be cleared in time for elections”. The question one has to ask is: does the MDC-T serious expect any meaningful reforms to be implemented six months before the elections?
3) If no reforms are implemented, will MDC-T participate in the elections regardless?
4) If MDC-T is genuinely concerned about these Zanu PF vote rigging shenanigans then why is the party still resolutely determined to contest the elections regardless?
5) Does MDC-T feel it has a duty of care to the thousands, perhaps millions, of Zimbabwean voters who will be denied a meaningful vote because Zanu PF thugs; who, after all, have the people’s voter registration slip details and therefore can establish how the individual voted if they really wanted to; coerced people into voting for their party?
6) MDC contested the flawed and illegal elections in 2013. What, other than give the process some measure of credibility which is what Zanu PF wanted, did participating accomplish?
7) If MDC-T participate in these elections, it is clear the party is determined to do so; will the party complain that the elections were rigged, it is clear Zanu PF is rigging the elections already? The world is sick and tired with political opportunists who ignore the warning not contest flawed elections and then complain endlessly about it afterwards!
8) SADC leaders advised Morgan Tsvangirai and the rest of the MDC leaders not to take part in the 2013 elections without first implementing the democratic reforms. What will it take to finally convince MDC-T and their friends in the opposition camp to finally heed the SADC leaders’ warning and demand reform before elections? What? Mayhem and blood shed? What?
The honest answer to why MDC-T and the others in the opposition camp are determined to contest this year’s elections regardless all the evidence that Zanu PF is already rigging the elections was given by David Coltart, former MDC-Ncube Minister of Education during the GNU.
“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 elections,” admitted Coltart in his book, The Struggle Continues.
“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 three main MDC factions have since formed the MDC Alliance and still there is no talk of doing the “obvious thing” – boycott the election. Greed has the better of them all – they are fighting over the scraps like dogs!
4 comments:
The truth of the matter is that MDC-T leaders are some of the most corrupt and competent politicians in the world they pathetic performance during the GNU speaks volumes. Having failed to get the democratic reforms implemented during the GNU when they had their best chance, MDC leaders are now at a loss what they can do. They can see that Zanu PF is rigging the elections but do not what they can do without admitting and/or exposing their own incompetence during the GNU.
They have settled for the next best thing, accept whatever scraps Zanu PF offer them! They will never admit they are fighting over scrap, of course. They will pretend the reforms are not necessary, they can win the elections without the reforms, they can win rigged elections, one minute. The next minute, they will be complaining that Zanu PF is rigging the elections. This is a confused lot, they do not know whether they are coming or going. They do not know where they are! Nothing of any substance we ever come out of corrupt, incompetent and sell-outs like Tsvangirai and his happy-go-lucky gang. Nothing! The sooner the people accept this reality the better and the sooner the nation can get on with the real business of getting out of this mess.
If there is going to be any hope of getting the reforms implemented and finally have free, fair and credible then it will have to be the people of Zimbabwe themselves who must demand reform and drive this!
@ Ngara
Ngara, you clearly have no clue what the reforms are about because if you did then you would know that the reforms must be discussed in detail otherwise we will be going back and forth over the same issue. Even if all the reforms were implemented tomorrow the situation on the ground takes time to settle and allow the reforms to take effect.
President Mnangagwa stubbornly refuse to discuss Zanu PF’s rotten past on CNN. He is trying to avoid having to deal with difficult issues such as corruption by pretending to do so will be to dwell in the past.
One of the root causes of corruption and mismanagement is the Zanu PF political patronage system, that is alive and thriving in the new dispensation. Before the dust of the November 2017 coup had settled President Mnangagwa was sharing out the spoils of power with his fellow coup plotters. He knows as well as very one that all his talk of free, fair and credible elections is all hot air because people like Minister Perrance Shiri or VP Chiwenga, will not brook the reality of being voted out of power, period!
So, to refuse to deal with Zanu PF’s political patronage system and vote rigging and all the other malpractices needed to sustain it to refuse to dwell in the past but it is also refusing to deal with the present and the future because the rotten system does not go away. It was there in the past, it is here today and, as long as nothing is done to uproot the system it will still be there tomorrow and in the future.
Zanu PF is a party of ruthless thugs, the party has always bullied, cheated, bribed, bamboozled and even committed cold blooded murders to impose what it wants on the nation. President Mnangagwa and his coup plotters decided that the coup itself was not a coup but a military assisted transition – they expect everyone else to accept that as fact because they said so. They have also decreed that the post-coup period is a new democratic dispensation in which there will be free, fair and credible elections; the fact this contrary to the situation on the ground is irrelevant – they say it is so and we must all swallow the lie.
Zanu PF know it needs to project the image of a law-abiding nation and the regime really believes it can just bully the world into accepting that it not a bully! It has managed to bluff the ordinary people into believing this but clearly it has failed dismally to do so with the international community and would be foreign investors the regime is desperate to woo.
As things stand it is hard for me to see the country attracting any would-be investors in the next six months or ever. As the truth of the pending no significant economic recover start to sink in Zimbabweans will once again start to demand meaningful regime change. Zanu PF will step up its vote rigging activities just to hang on to power.
The harder Zanu PF tries to hang on to power the more determined the people will get to remove the regime. In the end Zanu PF will give up its strangle hold on power because it is the people in such confrontations who always prevail in the long run.
Booting out Mugabe has postponed the demise of Zanu PF but only for a little while. Zanu PF will be booted out of power and that will happen sooner than President Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF thugs expect.
Noble Ngara
Mugabe and Zanu PF were forced to go into the GNU in 2008 because no one, not even the AU or SADC who are known for turning a blind eye to dodgy elections, could accept the blatant vote rigging and wanton violence as a free, fair and credible elections. You can insist that is normal all you want the truth is it not normal. Zanu PF has turned our politics into a dirty game because they are thugs.
Tsvangirai and his MDC friends were asked to implement the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging elections and restoring the people’s fundamental freedoms and human rights. They had five years to do this but failed to get even one reform implemented. Not one! Why? Mugabe bribed them with trappings of high office including the $4 million Highlands mansion for Tsvangirai. Of course, MDC leaders sold-out and they are corrupt and incompetent.
You are asking me to name who is not corrupt, incompetent and a thug is irrelevant in that my answer will not change the historic fact of Zanu PF being a party of thugs and MDC leaders being sell-outs.
I refuse to accept that Zimbabwe does not have competent men and women with common sense who can lead this great nation out of this hell-on-earth these Zanu PF thugs have dragged us into. All we have to do is implement the democratic reforms designed to clean up the dirty political system the thugs fostered on the nation and quality leaders will emerge.
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