In his desperation effort
to win political office the MDC Alliance presidential candidate, Nelson Chamisa,
has promised the people of Zimbabwe bullet trains travelling at 400 km/hour,
running on NRZ’s dilapidated network. The fastest commercial train is the Shanghai
Maglev with a top speed of 427 km/hour. He has also promised spaghetti
junctions and airport galore at growth points to rival the 50 km Mugabe High
Way to the tyrant’s Vimba rural home. I travelled down that High Way soon after
it was completed and all the traffic I came across was a scot-cart!
Once Chamisa had hit
the grove, he was getting carried away. He was promising Zimbabwe would host
the next Football World Cup and Olympic Games! It has taken years to bring him
down to earth and focus.
It has taken months
of constantly hammering it in to get Chamisa to accept the political reality that
primary reason MDC had so far failed to gain political power was because Zanu
PF rigged the elections. With Zanu PF’s checked record of gross mismanagement
and rampant corruption the people of Zimbabwe would elect anyone just to rid
themselves of Zanu PF. The real challenge for MDC was not so much about selling
Chamisa’s fantasia world but stopping Zanu PF rigging the elections.
The best option was
to demand that Zanu PF must implement the raft of democratic reforms designed
to take away the regime’s carte blanche dictatorial powers to rig the vote. The
reforms were agreed at the onset of the 2008 GNU and it was MDC’s primary
responsibility to get the reforms implemented. MDC leaders, Nelson Chamisa was
one of the MDC ministers in the GNU, failed to get even one reform implemented.
One would have thought MDC leaders had learned the lesson of that folly
following the rigged July 2013 elections and would all be demanding the
implementation of the reforms.
Instead of demanding
reforms before 2018 elections, Chamisa insisted the elections will go ahead as “MDC
had stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections!”
As the 2018 election
date approached it has become increasing clear that MDC’s “stringent measures
to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections” were just hot air! Now with just 3 days
before voting day we hear Chamisa has appointed a crack team to stop Zanu PF
stealing the votes.
"We have put together all necessary legal strategies and instruments to ensure that your vote counts and is secured," announced Harare Lawyer said Thabani Mpofu, who is heading Chamisa’s team of experts.
"I would have you know, fellow Zimbabweans that your votes, as sharp instruments, will reduce the swindling power of evil chaff and with your assistance they cannot be negated by any rigging mechanism, however, pernicious. Go vote, your vote shall count."
Mpofu was reported confident
“that the MDC Alliance leader would triumph even amid protests that the
electoral playing field remains tilted in favour of Zanu-PF.”
In other words, going
into Monday 30 July 2018 voting day, MDC acknowledges that Zanu PF is set to
rig the elections. MDC’s strategy is that Zanu PF will rig the vote and,
somehow, lose the elections! I would rather bet on Chamisa’s fantasia bullet
train zapping at 400km/hour from Bulawayo to Harare on NRZ’s dilapidated
railway and getting there in one piece than on ED rigging the vote and losing
the elections.
For President
Mnangagwa, VP Chiwenga and all the other Zanu PF junta members there is a lot more
at stake in these elections than just their love of absolute power and all the
influence and wealth that comes with it. Their necks are on the line! The junta
knows that this vote is ipso facto a referendum on whether the nation approved
last November’s military coup!
Robert Mugabe and
his G40 faction member has made no secret of their support of MDC. If MDC was
to win on Monday, G40 will be boasting to no end of the critical role they
played in securing that victory. Like Herodias’ daughter, Salome, G40 faction will
feel it has performed its seductive dance and for its reward it wants the
crocodile’s head in a silver platter!
President Mnangagwa
and his junta friends risked life and limb to stage the military coup to topple
Mugabe. They had no qualms about rigging these elections, after all this is not
something new as they are the ones who masterminded and executed all the vote
rigging and the politically motivated murders to keep Zanu PF and Mugabe in
power all these years.
To run the risk of
blatantly rigging the vote and then still go on to lose the elections is simply
unthinkable. ED and the junta will never make such a mind numbing blunder.
Never!
"The necessary
assurances from the security apparatus are at hand as they exist as a matter of
law. Power will be relinquished. Power will be taken, even though mountains be
moved, albeit, this shall be a peaceful and tranquil process," said the
captain of Chamisa’s mountain moving legal team, Mpofu.
Mpofu would not say
what the crack team will do just as Chamisa never said what the stringent
measures were. Top draw secrets! Usually that means no one has a clue what to
do next!
Out goes Chamisa’s “stringent
measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the vote”; they completely failed to stop the vote
rigging. In comes Chamisa’s mountain moving legal team whose task is not to
stop Zanu PF rigging the vote, it is water under the bridge, the team must stop
ED winning the elections.
These elections should
have never gone ahead without first implementing the reforms!
The only way out of
this mess is to completely ignore MDC. We must demand that these flawed and
illegal elections must be declared null and void, demand the implementation of democratic
reforms agreed at the onset of the 2008 GNU followed by the holding of free,
fair and credible elections. We must now end this charade of rigged elections which
is the root cause of the nation’s economic and political mess!
15 comments:
If this was a crack team of "mountain moving" legal experts Chamisa claims they are then where have they been hiding all these months whilst he blundered and made a complete fool of himself. Why have they failed to warn of the folly of going into the elections with out something as basic as a voters' roll!
One does not need to be a lawyer to know that it will be near impossible to prove that Zanu PF rigged the elections when there is no way of knowing those who voted were not supposed to vote or they voted multiple times when there is no voters' roll. The voters' roll is the smoking gun!
After years of being told repeatedly that MDC will stop Zanu PF rigging the elections on Monday the people of Zimbabwe will witness yet another session of blatant vote rigging! No doubt MDC will make a big song and dance about challenging the results but by the end of the week it will be crystal clear to even the most foolish and naive of the party's supporters that the challenge is just the posturing of a hen after the eagle that has just snatched one of her chicks! Every knows that the hen will be huffing and puffing if it flies just a ten metres; how was it going to fly after an eagle that has a 50 m head start!
MDC leaders' blundering incompetence is not only costing the ordinary people their right to free, fair and credible elections, very important as this is, but worse still each rigged election is making it that much more difficult to have free and fair elections. There only so many times one gets knocked and get up again. Many of our people are giving up hope of ever having a competent and democratic government!
Before independence the express train service from Bulawayo to Harare used to take four hours and it was more often than not on time. Today the number of trains have dropped to less than a quarter and the train takes 12 hours plus to do the same trip! During the five years of the GNU nothing changed because Mr Chamisa and his MDC friends had their snouts in the feeding trough. Now he was the people to vote for him to get back on the gravy train and he promises them bullet trains! Only fools would buy that!
There is absolutely nothing to be accomplished by voting on Monday, these elections are done! By participating you will only be giving credibility to a fraudulent process. What you must do now is demand that the elections must be declared null and void!
Dr Mandaza, let us be clear here; these elections are NOT free, fair and credible. Where in the world have you ever heard of free and fair elections when there is no credible and verified voters' roll?
The nation should have called "Strike out!" to President Mnangagwa and his military junta following their treasonous military coup last November. He promised to hold free, fair and credible elections to take the sting out of his illegitimate regime and now he has failed to deliver and this time there is no excuse for not calling "Strike out!"
These flawed and illegal elections must be declare null and void. This must clear the way for the appointment of an interim administration, a new GNU, if you want.
"Accordingly, the new government should not only be led by the MDC Alliance but also reflect, in character and direction, the new dispensation in Zimbabwe. The government must include, necessarily, a lean cabinet but infused with the requisite technocratic skills, especially in the economic-related ministries and departments," you said.
You could not be more wrong! The GNU must be tasked to implement the democratic reforms designed to dismantle the de facto one-party dictatorship. Chamisa and company failed to get even one reform implemented during the last GNU what reason is there to believe that they will not betray the nation once again!
We must now deal with this problem of rigged elections decisively and for that reason neither Zanu PF nor MDC leaders will be allowed to have any role in the next GNU! That point is none negotiable!
@ Siphosami Malunga
"In sport, it warms our hearts to see the winner reach out to comfort and congratulate their losing rival. It is what makes us love sport. The realisation that though the contest may be highly competitive, it does not strip us of our humanity. Life exists beyond the competition and today's victors can be tomorrow's losers. It is after all just a contest," you write.
"The winner of our July 30 election has to show magnanimity."
A noble sentiment to be sure but one that is totally irrelevant in our case! Zanu PF is blatantly rigging these elections and trust me there will be pitched battles in playing field and terraces alike if the blatant cheating Zanu PF does was ever repeated in an sport!
By stubbornly refusing to release a credible and verified voters' roll Zanu PF is effectively doing to deny many people their vote because they will turn up at the wrong polling station. The regime will also allow its own supporters to be bussed from one polling station to the next casting multiple votes. This is equivalent to find some of your key players have been barred from playing whilst you opponent are fielding 22 players instead of the usual 11!
The cheating side will not be showing their sportsmanship by comforting the losers but coming to rub it in! There is no sportsmanship in blatantly cheating and to show these qualities when you failed to show them during the game, when it matter, is just not on!
The double tragedy in Zimbabwe is we have a corrupt and incompetent opposition that has again and again agreed to taking part in the elections knowing fully well that Zanu PF will rig the vote. Zanu PF has been clever to allow these opposition opportunists to few a few gravy train seats and that is all they are after.
@ Pedzisai Ruhanya
"GIVEN MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa's surging rise and excitement of Zimbabwe's electoral politics ahead of the July 30 general election, and his vow to defend the people's vote in the event of proven manipulation, Zimbabwe, the region and the international community should be prepared to rein in the military to avoid a possible conflict, considering their previous efforts in blocking a democratic breakthrough."
This is just cheap talk that is not going to get us anywhere! SADC leaders have advised the people of Zimbabwe not to go into elections without first implementing the democratic reforms but we, especially our corrupt and incompetent MDC leaders, refuse to listen. Now we find ourselves in a mess we want the SADC "to rein in the military"!
If the elections are rigged and worse, then it is us Zimbabweans who must take full responsibility and, no doubt, will pay dearly for our folly! You can bury your head in the sand and blame SADC that will not change the reality on the ground!
@ Ronald Mapfumo
The trouble with some people is that you think you know best and so you never listen to advice only to panic when you are stuck!
"Only if our Heavenly Father intervenes then Chamisa will win and it will be a shock to Zimbabweans if Zanu Pf concedes defeat," you say.
"Without God intervening Zanu Pf not ED but Zanu Pf in general will never ever, ever concede defeat to an opposition party if it loses. We have 2008 as standing evidence because there is still an open case in courts today concerning those elections that even those who use to be #pro-mdc that year who have turned to be #pro-zanupf after the events of November 2017 crystal clearly know that Zanu Pf store our votes."
This is just nonsense! You are elevating ED and his Zanu PF cronies onto a pedals were no other mere mortal can remove them from office; only God can do so. ED and his Zanu PF junta are mere mortals just like you and me and their reign of terror would have ended years ago if Morgan Tsvangirai and his corrupt and incompetent MDC friends had implemented the democratic reforms during the GNU.
How many times have Zimbabweans been warned not to go into these elections without first implementing the reforms and yet people would not listen. Of course, Zanu PF is going to rig these elections and the consequences will be a complete disaster for the nation. There will be no meaningful economic recovery because no foreign investor or lender wants to do business in a pariah state ruled by thugs who are either plotting a coup or rigging elections!
Ever since God booted the two lovers, Adam and Eve, out of the Garden of Eden, God, thank God, stopped doing for mankind what mankind can do for himself. You can end Zanu PF's tyrannical rule but not by foolishly participating in flawed and illegal elections and giving them credibility. If you do not even seen the folly of participating in flawed elections after 38 years of rigged elections then you deserve to suffer the consequence of your folly!
By insisting in participating in these flawed elections it was Chamisa who declared himself a loser! And you, his braindead acolytes have been cheering him along!
@ Zim resident
By noon on Monday you and your fellow blind as a mole MDC supporters will once again be wailing and gnashing your teeth. By noon the penny will have finally dropped that these elections are being blatantly rigged!
@ Muporofita
Where have you ever heard of free and fair elections without something as basic as a voters' roll. Many of those MDC supporters will find on Monday that they do not have a vote simply because they turned at a polling station and be told they are not in the voters' roll! If you cannot see that these elections are done then you should look in the mirror to see who is thick and shallow!
@ Leopard
The split between Khupe and Chamisa had nothing to do with ZEC's failure to release a clean and verified voters' roll. With no democratic reforms in place, it was clear Zanu PF was going to rig these elections. What is it going to take you before you will finally accept that without the democratic reforms, Zimbabwe will never ever hold free and fair elections.
Yes the divisions in the opposition have made it easier for Zanu PF to rig these elections. Let us also remember that Zanu PF has never been more divided than it is right now, this should have worked to the opposition's advantage. The latter has not stopped Zanu PF rigging and winning these elections because the regime's carte blanche powers to rig the elections are such that it can step up the rigging to compensate for whatever other disadvantages the party is facing.
Tsvangirai won 73% of the vote in the March 2008 elections but still that was not good enough to get him to state house!
The solution to ending Zimbabwe's scourge of rigged elections and wanton politically motivated violence is to implement the raft of democratic reforms designed to end Zanu PF's dictatorial powers, controls and corrupting influence of state institutions like ZEC, Police, etc. We need a democratic system of government where all our people enjoy freedom and have a meaningful say in the governance of the country. We do not need to reinvent democracy, reinvent the wheel, it is there; let us use it.
There are some people out there who continue to ignore the calls for democratic reforms preferring to accomplish political and economic changes by voter education/mobilisation, calls to unite the oppositions, etc.; everything else other than implementing the reforms. These people are seeking to have good governance whilst keeping the Zanu PF dictatorship. This is just people who will fight endless skirmishes just to avoid fighting the decisive battle.
Nothing pleases Zanu PF more than to see the nation wasting its time, energy and resources fighting these skirmishes the party knows will never do anything to reduce its strangle hold on power whilst giving the ordinary people false hope that change is round the corner.
Our real challenge is to make the ordinary understand real democratic changes will only come from engaging Zanu PF and demand implementing the reforms befitting of one demanding the restoration of a denied birth right as contrast to one asking for a privilege! It is not in the DNA of tyrants to give up power much less when there is so much at stake as these Zanu PF thus have: absolute power is addictive and Zanu PF thugs are hooked, abject poverty awaits all those who lose power and many them have too many skeletons which they cannot trust anyone else to keep hidden.
@ Zimbo
In Zimbabwe's case stupidity is believing that elections are free, fair and credible and that one's vote counts when time and time again Zanu PF has blatantly rig the elections and denying the people a meaningful vote!
Zanu PF is rigging these elections! Where in the world have you ever heard of free and fair elections being held without something as basic as a voters' roll!
These elections should have never gone ahead without reforms and MDC leaders are to blame for misleading people into believing the party had "stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the vote!" Now we know they were lying!
These elections are not going to be free and fair and for someone like Eddie Cross to fail to see this is very disappointing! Yet it is to be expected given that these are the same people who spent five years of the GNU and failed to implement even one democratic reform! They did not see the need to implement the reforms.
Tsvangirai believed that "MDC had the numbers to overwhelm all Zanu PF vote rigging shenanigans!" He was shocked with the blatant vote rigging on voting day as reports of hundreds of thousands of MDC supporters being denied the vote, of Zanu PF youths being bussed from one polling station to the next casting multiple votes. By noon of the voting day the result of a landslide victory for Zanu PF is in no doubt!
After the rigged 2013 elections most people thought that MDC leaders had learned the lesson they will never want to make the same mistake ever again. Wrong! MDC have dragged the nation into these elections knowing fully will that not even one reform had been implemented since the rigged 2013 elections!
Even with all the evidence of lack of free public media, failure to release a verified voters' roll, etc. it is shocking that Mr Cross should be dithering, undecided as to whether these elections are free and fair or not!
@ Isaac Nkomah
"Zimbabwe is at a critical moment. I want to warn politicians, ZEC, churches, courts, lawyers, and the military to respect the will of the people. The voice of the people is the voice of God. Politicians, I want to say to you don't force yourself to the people," you said.
It is too late, Zanu PF has already rigged these elections. Have you ever heard of free, fair and credible elections in which there is no free public media, one party is free to rob the nation blind to bankroll its vote-rigging schemes, where there is no verified voters' roll, etc., etc.?
With now a day and half to go before voting starts; how is it possible that you alone have not heard that ZEC has not released a credible voters' roll? Or is it that you have heard it repeated 100 000 times and 100 000 times again in the last week alone and still it failed to stick! You have no idea what constitute free, fair and credible elections; even after 38 years of rigged elections and all the mountain of human history to learn from. Clearly you will never know because you are incapable of doing so.
By noon on Monday you will be one of the millions opposition supporters who will denied a vote because ZEC made it impossible for you to register, you registered but for 1001 reasons your details were never entered on the voters' roll, you turned up to vote at the wrong polling stations, etc., etc. If you are a Zanu PF supporter, well that is a totally different kettle of fish - you will vote and many will even cast multiple votes.
Whether you are too thick to see it or are pretending to be because you are a Zanu PF supporter it is irrelevant what matters is these elections are not free and fair. By rigging the elections President Mnangagwa was just confirmed that Zimbabwe is still a pariah state ruled by thugs with whose forte is to rig elections and if push comes to shove will stage military coups too!
For your own information, Zimbabwe is not going to have any meaningful economic recovery because foreign investors and lenders DO NOT do business with thugs!
Couch-potatoes' muscles waste away and turn into fat and failure to exercise one's brain has a similar consequence. Some people's heads are now full of fatty tissue, atrophied brain. In this day and age and after 38 years of rigged elections; you still fail to see that Zanu PF is rigging these elections - fcuk me, you really are brain-dead!
@ Fidelis Fengu
"I have loved former President Robert Mugabe and I have and will always believe in him and in his wisdom as a leader and as a human being. Gushungo might have had his short comings but we need to acknowledge the good he did, he empowered us through education as witnessed by our amazing literacy rate. Gushungo gave us land, and he taught us to believe in our ability as Africans to achieve more if we unite , operate in peace," you say.
Zimbabwe's greatest curse is that we have more that our fair share of certified first-class idiots and you, Fidelis is one of them.
In 1980 Zimbabwe was one of the top five riches countries in Africa and had the potential of becoming the South Korea of Africa. Today we are the poorest country in Africa. ¾ of our people today live on US$1.00 or less a day whilst the tyrant and a handful of his cronies live is mansions in unparalleled luxury.
On the political front Mugabe hijacked the revolution throwing away the value of freedom, liberty and justice for all to ride roughshod over the people's freedoms and human right in order to impose his de facto one party dictatorship. The price of establishing and retain this de facto one-party dictatorship is measured in terms of the millions who have been beaten, raped and over 30 000 murdered in cold blood.
On Monday, day after tomorrow, the nation is supposed to electing a new government in free, fair and credible elections but already it is evident these are going to be yet another rigged elections. Zimbabwe is stuck in this rut of political instability, a legacy of Mugabe's tyrannical rule.
Robert Mugabe is a corrupt, incompetent and a murderous tyrant, it really beggars belief that anyone, even with the benefit of 38 years of hindsight, would still admire the SOB! The trouble with stupid people like you Fidelis is that you see things but are totally incapable of valuating them. Even a ruthless murderer is capable of some good act. You will declare a ruthless murder a saint because he once upon a time helped an old lady cross the street even if it turns out it was for the sole purpose of robbing and murdering her!
There is no doubt that Mugabe has many admirers like you Fidelis, it has been Zimbabwe's great misfortune that idiots like you have been numerous and, worse still, you had the vote! Mugabe has rigged elections but with the active help of nincompoops like you!
@ Jovo
Numbers count for nothing! What good is Chamisa's 65 000 crowd if most of them will not be able to vote on Monday because ZEC and NIKUV have connived to denied them a vote. Meanwhile ED's 10 000 crowd will not only all vote but many will be casting multiple votes.
The trouble here is that some Zimbabweans with the pea-size brain cannot handle the reality that Zanu PF rigs elections and so they pretend elections are free, fair and credible. They will simply ignore all the evidence that elections are being rigged right up to the day of voting. It is only after having their noses rubbed into the blatant vote rigging on voting day that they will agree Zanu PF is rigging the elections.
They have the memory of a duck, in a few months all memory of the vote rigging is forgotten, they will be back working on the basis that elections are free, fair and credible - their comfort zone!
'Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it,' said Winston Churchill in a speech to the House of Commons.
After 38 years of rigged elections we have learned nothing and so have condemned ourselves to suffer the consequence of yet another rigged elections. Zanu PF will rig the elections on Monday and we will have another five years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF rule! Forgot the economic recovery because no foreign investor will invest in a pariah state ruled by vote-rigging and coup staging thugs!
This is the closest Chamisa and his supporters will ever get to the voters' roll!
Artur Jovo
A democratic Zimbabwe is ruled by the people of Zimbabwe is that not self rule?
The founding fathers of the AU were right in saying the people of Africa must not waste time in fighting to draw up new border and create new nation but rather focus on making each country be the best it can be for the good of all who live there! There is no sense in seeking to divide Zimbabwe when the most important task is to rebuild the nation from the ruins Zanu PF has left!
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