"The People's Demonstration against attempts to steal our
elections is definitely on Wednesday. We should go in our numbers as we march
towards the People's victory come July 30," twittered Douglas
Mwonzora, MDC Alliance Secretary General.
There is no free public media and so millions of the voters,
especially those in the rural areas have been effectively denied the right to
hear what the other candidates in these elections, other than Zanu PF who have
had the exclusive monopoly of the media for donkey years, have to offer. So,
there is no hoped of these voters being well informed then.
We know ZEC has only registered 5.6 million (there are grave
doubt there are no fictitious voters) out of its target figure of 7 million,
ZEC has failed to produce a clean and verified voters’ roll, etc. all because
the voter registration exercise was deliberately started very late. How can
this be a free and fair elections when near 25% have been denied the vote and
no one, except the authorities, know who is in the voters’ roll, who voted, how
many times they voted, etc.
Will Wednesday’s demonstration do anything to address the lack
of free public media, produce a clean and verified voters’ roll, etc., etc.? The
answer is no. There is not going to be even one meaningful reform that can be
implemented three weeks before voting day.
SADC leaders wanted the 2013 elections postponed until the
democratic reforms designed ensure there is a free public media, a competent
and independent ZEC that will produce a clean and verified voters’ roll
timeously, etc. SADC leaders looked Tsvangirai and his fellow MDC leaders straight
in the eyes and told them “If you go into next month’s elections, you will
lose; the elections are done!”
MDC leaders did not listen and went ahead and contested the
elections with no reforms in place. From David Coltart’s own account in his
book, MDC leaders had all the evidence “the elections were done” but still they
would not withdraw from contesting out of greed.
“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 (2013) elections,”
explained Senator Coltart.
“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.”
Three of the main MDC factions have since kissed and made up to
form the MDC Alliance in time for this year’s elections. Still, they have not
talked of boycotting the elections since not even one reform was implemented
since the last rigged elections; proof that greed still rules the roost!
Of course, MDC leaders will never admit that they are participating
in these flawed elections out of greed. Coltart admitted this in his book, no
doubt after agonising about it for ages, because the narrative would not have
made any sense. He has been very careful never to refer to the subject ever
again.
MDC leaders have come up with all manner of feeble excuses why
they have continued to ignore SDAC leaders’ advice not to take part in the
elections without first implementing the reforms. One of the excuses has been
that MDC will force Zanu PF to implement the reforms before the elections;
Wednesday’s demo is in pursuance of this goal.
14 comments:
MDC is just doing what MDC does best - wasting time on totally meaningless political posturing and grand standing! There is no free public media, there is no clean and verified voters' roll, etc.; there elections have been stolen already! This demonstration is not going to stop Zanu PF stealing the elections because the elections have already been stolen. This is done and dusted!
The ZEC Chairperson Justice Priscilla Chigumba has revealed that the elections body will investigate how one political party allegedly managed to secure prospective voters' mobile details and their voting centres, in a development which has seen the party texting prospective voters campaign messages.
Why am I not surprised!
The most important question here has to be why are our people being taken through this mill of an electoral process that many other nations who have discarded a long time ago by now. This is a mockery of an election wasting time, opportunities and treasure!
Economically, Zimbabwe is the poorest nation in Africa, which is the poorest continent on the planet. Natural resources and potential we are one of the richest nations on earth, our greatest curse has been having some of the most incompetent leaders the world has ever seen.
Even big referral hospitals like Mpilo Hospitals have reportedly cancelled routine operation because they had no pain killers. And yet ZEC alone has spend nearly $100 million; Zanu PF, the big spenders, is spending over $4 billion, most of it looted from the nation's rich bounty; on these sham elections!
Holding free, fair and credible elections should be routine but you would be forgiven to think it is one of the most complex task on earth. What has made holding elections such a complex and expensive operation is that the regime spending all this time and money mudding the waters for the selfish purpose of rigging the vote. The idiotic opposition has gone along for the ride!
No wonder the country is in a mess given all this shocking criminal waste of resources and breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent leaders!
Mnangagwa visited the asbestos mining giant before addressing a rally at Mucheke Stadium B Arena.
He told officials at King Mine his government was committed towards the revival of the mining sector.
He has also promised to hold free, fair and credible elections and yet he is rigging these elections.
Zimbabwe is in this political and economic mess precisely because for the last 38 years the country had a government that did as it pleased because it was not accountable to the voters as it rigged elections. This must end now, not next time, now. The people of Zimbabwe must now insist on having a government that is accountable to the people and one that rigs elections is not accountable to the voters.
Since President Mnangagwa has failed to keep his promise of holding free and fair elections, he must step aside to allow for others who will!
He said: "I am happy to hear that the army has vowed to follow the Constitution. That is good, they are there for the people. When (President Emmerson) Mnangagwa and Chamisa tussle in the political ring, they should step aside. But when Chamisa wins, they should salute, they will be saluting the government, not me."
It is bad enough to have a naïve and gullible electorate this becomes a very serious problem when leaders are just as naïve and gullible! We are talking here of the same army that has played a major part in the vote rigging and wanton violence that has landed the nation in this mess in the first place.
The same army that staged a military coup only eight months ago and many of those involved have since taken up leading positions in government and a whole company of other were promoted within the army. It is really naïve to think that all those coup plotters would risk life and limb to seize power but only to give it away eight months later!
Chamisa and his MDC friends had the golden opportunity to implement the reforms which would severed Zanu PF's undemocratic and corrupting influence in the Army, Police ZEC and all the other state institutions. They failed to get even one reform implemented in five years. It is very disappointing that even with the benefit of hindsight Chamisa is still wet behind the ears!
The junta has promised to hold free and fair elections but has done nothing to make that happen. Likewise, the army can afford to make greenhorn anything since they know it will never happen! Zanu PF and the Army are busy rigging these elections.
These elections should not be taking place without implementing the reforms; idiots like Chamisa are not doing the nation any favours with their blundering incompetence.
Chiwenga said Indians living in Zimbabwe must vote for Mnangagwa whom he said has done a lot for them within the short seven months period he has been President.
So, VP Chiwenga is proud of Zanu PF's track record of the last 7 months but ashamed of the party's track record of the 37 years before that! The irony is it was none other than President Mnangagwa, VP Chiwenga and all of the other last November coup leaders who had expended the greatest time, energy and money, human suffering and even lives imposing Mugabe and the Zanu PF dictatorship on a reluctant nation.
Of course, they knew the dictatorship was a total disaster to the nation, but they did not care as long as they got their share of the absolute power and the spoils that flowed from it. They were prepared to harass beat and even commit murder to keep Zanu PF in power and they did just that!
VP Chiwenga and his junta friends want the nation to believe that last November's coup was a Damascene moment that transformed President Mnangagwa and the junta from the corrupt and ruthless thugs into law abiding democrats. It is all a elaborate façade of seasoned con men complete with the colourful scarf.
The junta has promised to hold free and fair elections and yet has refused to implement even one reform to make that possible. By rigging these elections, Zanu PF has just confirmed that Zimbabwe is still a pariah state ruled by vote rigging thugs.
The economic recovery the junta is promising is nothing but a mirage; no investors are coming to Zimbabwe because they do not do business with thugs. Zimbabwe's economic recovery is now totally dependent on the nation doing something to end the scourge of rigged elections.
Every Zimbabwean, blacks, whites, coloured, Indian, etc. must now play their part and join in calling for these elections to be declared null and void. This way, the nation will be forced to revisit and implement the raft of democratic reforms agreed at the onset of the 2008 GNU. With the reforms in place the country will finally be able to hold its first free, fair and credible elections and start on the difficult task of rebuilding the nation from the ruins Zanu PF thugs have left!
@ Rodney 15
Exactly!
"Did ED not have any influence on Mugabe when he was his Vice-President? If not, then what kind of a deputy was he? On what basis was he chosen to be Vice-President at the expense of others? I used to think that a Vice-President is a second senior officer of any organisation. However, with ED, it seems that was not the case. So paradoxical indeed, in Zimbabwe you can also get diesel from granite rocks," you rightly said.
Indeed, if ED believed he was a cabinet member all these year to do Mugabe's bidding and powerless to say no to even the criminal and murderous errands then one wonders whether he too expects his ministers to be equally powerless. It was Margaret Dongo who said Zanu PF ministers, MPs, etc. were Mugabe's subservient concubines, "vakadzi vaMugabe!"
There is no doubt that Mnangagwa has the same tyrannical streak of Mugabe, he too wants to be an absolute monarch. Instead of getting a dynamic regime in which policies are subjected to rigorous scrutiny in the party, parliament, cabinet, etc. all we will get is another another absolute tyrant with his harem of subservient concubines and army of eunuchs.
A sea of Indians all wearing the Mnangagwa scarf at a rally in Harare is a worrying sight. Did they have to go this far!
Are they all wearing the scarf as a fashion statement or to demonstrate their blind loyalty to Zanu PF? They are lucky that Zanu PF rallies are no longer punctuated by the fist punching and empty slogans, it would have been comical to hear some of the slogans repeated in Urdu!
We want a nation of free citizens and not frighten subjects cowing down to the dictates of the ruthless ruling elite.
Justice Chigumba's statement could be read as a direct threat against the European Union observers who last week passed comments protesting against organisation's handling of the upcoming polls.
It is not surprising that ZEC is so defensive, they know these elections are not going to be free and fair!
@ Andrew Manyevere
"Mr. E D Mnangagwa, Mr C Mutsvangwa, Mr.O Mpofu, Dr I Chombo, General C Chiwenga, to mention just a few, have to declare publicly their net-worth and assets because they have made a lot of money from the public office they held and still wish to continue to hold. If therefore Chris Mutsvangwa wants to tell the nation and the world the history of where things went wrong in Zimbabwe as irrelevant it can only highlight Zanu-pf failure to comprehend management requirements to perform economically. In a way it is an admission of the great deception that took our country towards the direction it is in currently; and it does not seem like at this rate she could come out given the way chief advisor to the current Zanu-pf president reasons," you said.
But if the truth is to be told the ordinary Zimbabweans out there have yet to understand where things have gone wrong on the economic and political front. Indeed, the onus is on the ordinary people themselves to do this first.
What is the point of the likes of Mutsvangwa being asked to tell what went wrong if the people themselves have no clue what went wrong? What is there to stop him repeating the same hen's teeth story of the West imposed sanctions are the root cause of all our problems? The people believed the lie before, no doubt, they will do so again.
The one thing I would say the people need to help them in their search for the answers to why Zimbabwe is in this hell-hole is that we have freedom of expression, freedom of association and a free media.
This country has suffered greatly under this mentally exhausting for the sheer mind-numbing stupidity and mundanity of life under this corrupt and tyrannical regime. To secure its on strangle hold on power the regime has stifled all meaningful debate and democratic competition to create such politically and intellectual sterile environment that many Zimbabweans are braindead. Their brains have atrophied, it is now more fatty tissue that brain cells.
Yes, we need to sort out our teething economic problems, get people to work, get our hospitals working, etc. There will be no meaningful economic recovery as long as we remain stuck with corrupt, incompetent and democratically unaccountable leaders. We need quality leaders but that will only come out of a quality electorate, as long as our voters remain a naïve and gullible lot, easily frightened and bamboozled we will continue to have corrupt, incompetent and utterly useless leaders as those who have got us into this mess in the first place.
MDC leaders had their golden opportunity to stop Zanu PF stealing elections once and once for all during the 2008 to 2013 GNU and they wasted it. They have five years in which to implement the raft of democratic reforms agreed at the onset of the GNU; they failed to get even one reform implemented. Not one!
Mugabe did not want the reforms to be implemented and he bribed Morgan Tsvangirai with the trappings of high office, ministerial limos, very generous salaries and allowances, a $4 million mansion for Tsvangirai, etc. It worked like a charm. Not even the constant nagging by SADC leaders reminding them about the reforms would get MDC leaders to do anything.
By failing to get even one reform implemented MDC leaders have proven beyond all doubt that they are breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent. SADC leaders and anyone who really has a grasp of what is going on have lost confidence in the MDC as capable of doing anything of any substance.
The demonstration tomorrow, 11 July 2018, is just another one of those occasions MDC leaders can standup and drum their chests like silver-back gorilla. Zanu PF's vote rigging schemes are all set, there are no meaningful reforms that can be implement now to disrupt any of these schemes. Only egotistic silver-backs and their naive supporters will believe all this nonsense of the demo stopping Zanu PF stealing the elections.
I agree 100%, the stealing is done!
I also agree 100% that ED will see to it that the pantomime is well attended. The greatest worry in Zanu PF circles is the growing realisation by the Zimbabwe public that these elections are indeed a sham. A poor attendance at the pantomime could be followed by an equally poor voter turnout on 30 July. If that was to happen he knows the game will be up, the international community will certainly declare the elections null and void!
I am tempted to believe that ZEC may even be tempted to give in on one of the MDC demands just to give Chamisa and his opposition friends a leg up on the political credibility ladder!
@ Bheveni Sibanda
It is either MDC leaders believe Zanu PF is stealing these elections or they do not! SADC leaders have warned Tsvangirai and the rest of the MDC leaders that with no reforms Zanu PF will rig the elections. The very fact that MDC are in these elections would point to the fact that they do not believe Zanu PF will rig the elections. And yet there is a mountain of evidence proving beyond doubt that Zanu PF is rigging these elections. The dithering is proof of just how incompetent MDC leaders are, one half of their pea-size brain says the elections will be rigged the other half does not.
The real tragedy here is that the nation is being dragged into these utterly pointless elections which Zanu PF is set to blatantly rig as it has done in 2013!
Here we go again! How many times has MDC been making these threats and how many times have Zanu PF ignored them and then MDC have quietly forgotten they even made the threats.
Demands for a free public media make sense but one has to question what difference this would make now, just three weeks before voting day?
These elections should not be taking place without first implementing the democratic reforms necessary to ensure free and fair elections. The only reason why these elections are going ahead regardless all the evidence the election will be rigged is because MDC leaders have refused to listen. Zanu PF has dangled a few gravy train seats to entice the opposition to take part in the elections regardless how flawed the process. MDC are after these few seats regardless how flawed the process.
These flawed elections are going ahead to gratify both Zanu PF and MDC's insatiable greed for power at great expense to the nation stuck in this hell-on-earth of total economic meltdown and political paralysis.
@ Musa
What peril are you talking about? This is just hot air!
The international community can see there is no verified voters' roll, no free public media, etc., etc. They know only an idiot would take part in such flawed elections!
The international community know that MDC leaders failed to implement even one reform during the GNU and they also know that these elections would not be taking place if it was not for MDC leaders' greed and breath-taking incompetence! They can also see the MDC leaders posturing and grandstanding.
The international community are going to condemn these flawed elections. As for what MDC leaders decide to do next, no one really cares!
@ Future
You still fail to understand that by participating in rigged elections MDC has changed nothing other than give the flawed process credibility and thus help perpetuate Zanu PF's rule! If Chamisa was serious about ending Zanu PF's rule then why did MDC fail to implement even one democratic reform!
Post a Comment