Chihota praise ED to the high heavens - skunk soaked in Channel 5 is still a skunk

“President Mnangagwa as tried and tested politician, held separate meetings with chiefs, church leaders, youths, students, whites and business community as well as farmers. The President realised that for his message to be sector appropriate he had to meet these interest groups separately so as to understand their needs,” wrote Elijah Chihota in an article in Bulawayo 24.

The article praised President Mnangagwa to the high heavens. An interesting narrative but sadly it was both false and incomplete. It was all flesh and even bone and so instead of the human ED Chihota had an overgrown slug!

Chihota did not mention that President Mnangagwa came to be President following a military coup that ousted a corrupt and ruthless tyrant, Robert Mugabe, whom Mnangagwa and his fellow coup plotters had ruthless imposed on the nation the last 37 years by rigging elections and even stage a pre-emptive coup in 2008 to stop MDC taking power.

The narrative fails to mention that when he took office, President Mnangagwa promised to hold free, fair and credible elections but clearly never meant to honour his promise as he has stubbornly refused to implement even one democratic reform to make this possible. How can these elections be free and fair when there is no free public media?

ZEC has failed to release a cleaning verified voters' roll a month before nomination day, 14 June in this case, at the very latest as is required by law. Up today, 5 days before voting day there is still no credible, clean and verified voters' roll. How can any one judge these elections to be credible when something as basic as a voters' roll is missing!

President Mnangagwa and his junta are blatantly rigging these elections not that anyone with half a working brain is surprised. After all these are the same thugs who staged a military coup only 8 months ago; if they had no qualms committing a clear cut act of high treason then why would they shy away from a much more subtle act of rigging elections. Besides they have been rigging elections for the last 37 years; if they stopped now, even their small-house mistress would divorce them disappointed they are no longer the thug they were!

"Where is the evidence that the elections were rigged!" retorted President Mnangagwa just two months ago, when a UK Economist reporter reminded him of the rigged 2008 elections.

Mugabe has since admitted to losing the March vote to Tsvangirai's 73% of the vote. Mugabe wanted to hand over power and it was none other than Mnangagwa himself who told Mugabe to stay put.

Mnangagwa and his junta ordered ZEC to recount the votes and after six week whittled down Tsvangirai's vote to 47% to force a run-off.

During the runoff it was again Mnangagwa and many of his fellow November coup plotters who masterminded and carried out some of the worst acts of wanton election violence in human history. No one, not even SADC and the AU who have often turned a blind eye to dodgy Zanu PF elections in the past, would pretend the 2008 elections were free, fair and credible. 

"Where is the evidence that the elections were rigged!" What an insult!

Chihota, the real President E D Mnangagwa is a corrupt, vote-rigging and murderous thug. Since the coup he has tried to rebrand himself as Mr Nice Guy with his big smile and colourful scarf; only the naive are fooled. A skunk soaked in several bottles of Channel 5 is still a skunk, a flick of the tail will end all doubt. By rigging these elections; ED has proven that behind the smile and scarf double act hides the real ED, a seasoned and ruthless thug!

“His (ED) electoral theatrics over the past few weeks have sold him for who he really is, more than the over 60 campaign rallies which he has held so far. His candidature has been made an open book from which the electorate needs to carefully study before casting their votes next week,” concluded Elijah Chihota.

With no credible, clean and verified voters’ roll, only Zanu PF knows who these voters are and, more significantly, that they will deliver a landslide victory for ED and Zanu PF, guaranteed! What matters now is whether the international election observers will buy the theatrical electoral fraud.

“The Southern African Development Community (SADC) observer mission will not endorse a bogus election in Zimbabwe,” reported Spotlight Zimbabwe.

 “SADC representatives led by Angola’s secretary of state in the External Relations Ministry‚ Tete Antonio‚ said after meeting political parties in Harare at the weekend that they would not endorse a sham election as their mandate was to witness democratic processes.”

Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown and political turmoil have brought heart breaking human suffering to millions of ordinary Zimbabweans and many have paid with their very lives! The root cause of the economic and political mess is the country’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections.

It is in SADC’s interest to end Zimbabwe’s scourge of bogus elections not only to alleviate the tragic human suffering in Zimbabweans but for the development and political stability of the region.

SADC leaders tried to end Zimbabwe’s political crisis following the blatant cheating and wanton violence of the 2008 elections. They tasked the GNU to implement a raft of democratic reforms only to be disappointed when not even one reform was implemented at the end of the five years. These rigged elections are giving SADC another golden opportunity to revisit the reforms and make sure that this time they are implemented.