“We must clearly express that there are irregularities in the conduct of the elections and that they can’t be free and fair. We must tell the opposition parties to pull out of the election,” said ZCTU President Peter Mutasa, according to a report in New Zimbabwe.
“We need to engage and tell them our position and clearly explain the advantages of following us, if they don’t listen, then they should not complain immediately after Mnangagwa is announced the winner.”
This has to be the best news to come out of Zimbabwe in the last ten years!
Nelson Chamisa and his MDC friend have admitted that these elections are not going to be free, fair and credible. Instead of demanding the implementation of the democratic reforms and standing firm they have followed the more dubious option of demanding the reforms and then quickly add that they will NOT boycott the elections as they were cocksure they will force Zanu PF to implement all their demands BEFORE the elections.
It must be said that Zanu PF has simply called MDC’s bluff on their demands and ignore them. Not even one reform has been implemented since the July 2013 rigged elections. With not even one reform in place and just weeks to the voting day ZCTU are simply acknowledging the political reality that the elections are going to be rigged, no two ways about it!
ZCTU has looked MDC leaders in the eye and told them in plain English to stop pretending these elections are going to be free and fair. ZCTU are not the only ones to tell MDC leaders the plain truth as regard elections.
SADC leaders are on public record as having warned MDC leaders not to participate in the elections without reforms. “If you take part in next month’s elections, you will lose; the elections are done!” they told Morgan Tsvangirai and his brain-dead MDC friends to their faces in 2013.
As we know MDC leaders did not listen and they took part in the 2013 elections which Zanu PF went on to blatantly rig. The consequences of the rigged elections is the economic meltdown that has seen unemployment soar to the dizzying height of 90%, the total collapse of basic services like clean running water and health care, etc. The human suffering and unnecessary deaths have been heart breaking.
It is totally unacceptable that these MDC village idiots should want to drag the nation into yet another pointless election process with the same economic consequences and tragic human miseries!
“Mutasa said they were now advocating for an all stakeholders National Transitional Authority that would prepare the country for credible elections that would bring a legitimate government, adding that a disputed election at this juncture would further plunge the country into economic and political turmoil,” continued the report.
I will say HALLELUJAH! AMEN to that! It has taken 38 years for the penny to finally drop but now that it has, there is no going back!
22 comments:
@ 003 tico
Zanu PF is not making the same mistake it made in 2008 of letting the people vote and then tamper with the result. The party has its own devious way of making such the result posted at polling station already show a clear Zanu PF landslide victory. Look what happened in the 2013 elections, MDC announcing the results would not have changed anything!
MDC are determined to take part in these elections regardless of all the evidence that these elections are not going to be free and fair. There is no way anyone, even with the best will in the world, produce a clean and verified voters' roll in a few months much less in two weeks. Chamisa keeps on insisted on MDC having stringent measure to force ZEC/Zanu PF to implement its demands there is nothing anyone can do to clean a voters' roll in two weeks.
Chamisa is insisting "MDC is not going to be frog marched into these flawed elections!" and yet that is exactly what is happening or be it by their own greed.
"See you at State House!" Chamisa said at the end of the interview. His eyes are fixed on the State House he cannot see that the elections are being rigged.
Chamisa is nothing more that the pompous Emperor whose misplaced ego would not allow him to admit he was naked. Chamisa will never admit he does not have any stringent measures to force Zanu PF to hold free and fair elections. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, Emperor Nero cannot do!
The real important question is how many times are Zimbabweans themselves going to allow themselves to be conned by MDC into participating in flawed and illegal elections? How long are they going to cheer the naked Emperor!
ZCTU have told MDC that these elections are not free, fair and credible and they must therefore pull out. This is not the first time MDC leaders have been warned of the sheer folly of taking part in flawed elections; SADC leaders warned them in 2013.
What makes ZCTU's warning significant is that they are one of the few Zimbabwean institutions to say it loud and clear that it is insane to contest flawed elections. If SADC and the international community were going to hesitate to declare these elections null and void on the premiss that Zimbabweans themselves are happy with rigged elections they now know better!
Zimbabweans do not want rigged elections and they know these elections are being rigged. All we are asking for is for the elections to be declared null and void so we can have a chance to implement the democratic reforms. That is not too much to ask!
@ Ntombi Langa
"How many essays needed Wilbert Mukori to write and his unending message be heard? He permanently said one message, don't go for elections without any meaningful reforms. It is only now, now at the eve of the elections that even a big body like zctu realises the folly of going for elections without any meaningful reforms on the ground. Surely mdc had 10 years to force Manu of to reform."
Thank you.
It is disappointing that we should be denying our own people something as basis as a right to a meaningful vote in this day and age! Some people pretend they do not even know what constitute a free, fair and credible elections and yet they are professional, some have lived in democratic countries for donkey years and some even hold public office, MPs!
For all the advantages one would think MDC leaders like Eddie Cross, Tendai Biti Nelson Chamisa, etc. got from having a good education they have continued to be shockingly corrupt and incompetent. Others like the late Tsvangirai and Mwonzora one can see they are just too stupid, how they even got hold high public office is a complete mystery.
Even if MDC was to win these election, win rigged elections, Chamisa and his lot would never implement the democratic reforms, even if their own lives depended on it. How can they implement something they do not understand! Eddie Cross is showing just how shallow thick and slow these MDC leaders are.
MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa has boasted the country's military was on his side as he takes on President Emmerson Mnangagwa in a crunch Presidential election in two weeks' time.
The Army has been involved in the vote rigging shenanigans for years; they were certainly not on the side of the common person then. Is Chamisa suggesting the Army has gone through some Damascene transformative moment since. Mugabe thought the army was on his side until the small hours of 15 November 2017!
Chamisa is confusing wishful thinking with reality. No wonder MDC failed to implement any reforms during the GNU when they had the golden opportunity to do so.
If we are serious about having an independent and apolitical Army then we must implement the democratic reforms and sort this once and once for all.
These elections are being rigged under his own nose and Chamisa is too stupid to notice it!
Only a fool would agree to go into an election with no clean and verified voters' roll, no free public media, with Zanu PF having billions of dollars of looted public funds to bankroll its vote rigging schemes, etc., etc.
Chamisa keeps claiming that "MDC has stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections." Ask him what they are, he says they are a secret. It is now two weeks to voting day and clearly the "secret stringent measures" have not produced the desired result - stopping Zanu PF rigging the elections.
The secret stringent measures are nothing more than the new clothes in Hans Christian Andersen's tale The Emperor's New Clothes. Just as the day arrived when the Emperor had to wear his new clothes, elections are here and MDC's measures to stop Zanu PF rigging have been put to the test and found wanting.
"We must clearly express that there are irregularities in the conduct of the elections and that they can't be free and fair. We must tell the opposition parties to pull out of the election." Was the unequivocal statement from ZCTU President Peter Mutasa to MDC leaders.
Zimbabweans do not want to be dragged into yet another flawed and illegal election hoping against hope that MDC will pull a rabbit out from the hat and stop the vote rigging. It is simply insane to go into these elections on the strength of MDC stopping Zanu PF rigging the vote. Everyone can see that MDC leaders are no magicians, Emperor Nero is just a pompous and egotistic fool so foolish he is parading stark naked!
"He (Mnangagwa) is saddened by your plight and is the best candidate to uplift our lives; he is the best candidate to resuscitate Ziscosteel if you give him a fresh mandate," said July Moyo.
And why has he done nothing all these last 37 years as a senior member of successive Zanu PF governments?
Zanu PF members know the party would never win a free, fair and credible elections because the people have heard enough of their lies and damned lies. The party knows to stay in power, it has no choice but to rig the elections. On the other hand the party also knows that for political legitimacy it must be seen to be holding a free, fair and credible elections. It is a high stakes and high rope delicate balancing act.
Whilst the normal side, the good Dr Jekyll, of party has produced its party manifesto and is campaigning as any other political party. The ruthless half, evil Mr Hyde side, is involved in all manner of vote rigging activities. Ever since Zanu PF was forced to take MDC into government the 2008 to 2013 GNU, the party has learned to give away a few gravy train seats just to keep MDC from boycotting elections and to do everything possible to keep Mr Hyde out of the public eye.
Mnangagwa will resuscitate Zisco Steel, since when has Zanu PF ever bothered to honour its promise or to seek the people's mandate? The only way to restore the people's right to a meaningful is by implementing the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections.
@ Chihota
"As the 2018 harmonised elections beckons with only twelve days to go, political parties are busy criss-crossing the length and breadth of Zimbabwe trying to lure the electorate to vote for them. In all this, the ZANU PF Presidential candidate, President Emmerson Mnangagwa has stood out to be different in his approach to elections than his rivals."
President Mnangagwa can criss-cross the country 100 000 times again, he is not fooling me! His criss-crossing of the country is only meant as a smoke screen to give the impression these are normal elections when nothing could be further from the truth. Zanu PF is rigging these elections and is seeking to hide this by carrying out other normal elections activities.
If this nation is ever going to hold free and fair elections then we must implement the raft of democratic reforms agreed at the onset of the 2008 GNU.
@ 003tico
"This man called Wilbert Mukori is the worst "SELLOUT" that Zimbabwe has ever produced in its existence. He is so eager to let Zanu PF rule our country as long as he is alive. Why does Mukori think that Zanu PF and Chigumba cannot be forced by Zimbabwean citizens to stop rigging their elections?," you say.
"If Mugabe was removed from power by Zimbabweans, and even before then Smith too, what has become so special about ZPF plus Madam Chigumba that suddenly the people are powerless to remove them. I have said it before and I repeat it here "WILBERT MUKORI YOU ARE A MNANGAGWA PROJECT". Your pretence to be advising MDC Alliance to quit the elections exposes you as a Nicodemus. Did the MDC Alliance ask for your advice? IF not, why are you losing sleep in effort to discourage the people's President Adv. N. Chamisa to withdraw from contesting in the elections? Please give us a break Mukori. We are tired of your RUBBISH."
You criticizing someone when you clearly lack the intellect to understand what the person has said. You can only see good or bad, black or white and cannot accept that someone else with sweet, nimble and creative mind can not only black and white but all the shade of grey and all the colours of the rainbow.
You cannot see MDC leaders as the corrupt, incompetent and sell-outs they are because you only judge them in the context of corrupt, vote-rigging and murderous Zanu PF thugs. Having judged the latter bad MDC leaders must therefore be good. Anyone else who dare see MDC leaders as the sell-out must therefore be a Zanu PF project! How sad that anyone could be so shallow, thick and slow!
MDC leaders failed to implement even one democratic reform during the GNU because they had sold-out. Mugabe bribed them with the trapping of high office and the forgot all about the reforms, this is a historic fact. You can call Wilbert all the stupid names you want for calling a spade a spade that will never turn it into anything else other than what it is, a spade.
Chamisa and his MDC friends have misled the nation into believing MDC has ways of stopping Zanu PF rigging the elections when in fact they have no clue. ZCTU is right in making a clean break from all this MDC nonsense and acknowledging than Zanu PF is indeed rigging these elections and telling Chamisa and company that they are lying to say otherwise! ZCTU is right to say MDC must pull out of these elections without a further ado!
MDC's participation in these flawed elections gives the process credibility and thus helps Zanu PF get away with vote rigging. MDC leaders are hunting with the hounds and running with the hare but complex plots are incomprehensive to a simpleton like you!
Thank God there are a few Zimbabweans, ZCTU leaders included, who now appreciate SADC leaders' advice that Zimbabwe might first implement the reforms if the country is to hold free and fair elections. It has taken a long time for the penny to drop but with some people the penny will never drop, the mud is just too thick!
@ Dobbs
It is not for ZEC to implement the reforms but parliament just as it should be, if ZEC had been reformed and correctly structure, for parliament to make sure ZEC performs its duty properly.
@Inno
Actually the whole world is sick and tired of Zanu PF rigging elections. If you think SADC and the international community is going to rubber stamp elections in which ZEC has failed to produce a clean and verified voters' roll as free and fair then you are in for a big surprise. The international election observer are going to rule these elections null and void!
The years of Zanu PF getting away with rigged elections are over!
These elections are being rigged; what good will signing this of "peace covenant by political parties" do to help the nation get out of this mess? The most important challenge right now is to realise the sheer futility of taking part in flawed and illegal elections.
ZCTU leaders taken the lead in admitting that, with no reforms in place, these elections will not be free, fair and credible and called on the opposition to pull out. It has taken a long time for the penny to drop but thank God it has dropped. It looks like the penny will never drop in some heads, the mud is just too thick!
Democracy only works when there are wake-awake voters who are aware of the challenges of the day and not sheep who will follow blindly no questions asked!
MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa Tuesday gave the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) up to this Friday to give in to the opposition’s demands for poll reforms or they will escalate their grievances to SADC and AU.
MDC is now well known for its reform demands, red lines, ultimatums, resolutions, etc. which the party has again and again ignored. Having said all along that MDC will participate in these elections confident that the party will force Zanu PF to implement the reforms BEFORE the elections Chamisa and company are now under pressure. They have been kicking the can down the street and now the are getting to the end of the street. Time is running out for having the reforms implemented.
What meaningful reforms does Chamisa expect ZEC and Zanu PF to implement in four days is what the world will want to know!
ZCTU leaders are right in acknowledging that MDC will never get any meaningful reforms implemented now and accepts, with no reform, Zanu PF will rig these elections. ZCTU are now on public record telling Chamisa and company to pull out of these flawed and illegal elections!
It is insane to keep participating in elections knowing fully well that the process is flawed and illegal, Zanu PF will blatantly rig the vote and, worst of all, by participating one is giving credibility to the process and thus help perpetuate Zanu PF's rule!
Chamisa is indecisive; he cannot make up his mind whether these elections are free, fair and credible or they are not. Whilst I would give him a fighting chance of winning the former he has no chance in winning the latter!
So far he has told his supporters and the nation at large that he has "stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections". Whether or not he had such measures is now academic, what matters is that MDC has failed to stop Zanu PF rigging these elections. The real question MDC must now answer is does the party have stringent measures to win rigged elections?
Chamisa has carefully avoided answering this question. Zimbabwean must now decide for themselves whether to continue participate in the election hoping MDC can pull the rabbit out of the hat and win rigged elections. Or to throw in the towel and have nothing to do with the flawed and illegal elections.
Zimbabweans must now know that participating in these flawed elections helps give the process credibility. Those who think there is nothing to lose, other than the election, in participating in these election even if the flawed are wrong. The world we live in is not the simple and straightforward world of one, maximum two variables, the real world has three or more variables. Tyrants love the simple minded people because they are easily fooled and exploited.
In the 2008 run-off Mugabe had a landslide 84% victory but no one, not even SADC and AU accept the process as having been free, fair and credible after all that blatant cheating and wanton violence. This year, as happened in 2013, Zanu PF has reduced the wanton violence but stepped up the blatant vote rigging. ZEC has failed to produce a clean and verified voters' roll and come voting day on 30 July 2018 there will be total chaos.
Millions of voters will be denied the vote because they will turn at the polling station and be told their are not of the voters' roll. Meanwhile known Zanu PF supporters will be able to go from one polling station to the next and casting a vote at each station.
Zanu PF has deliberately mudded the water and whipping everyone into a stampede no one will see even 5% of the blatant vote rigging taking place even if they had the spider's eight eyes each able to move independently like a chameleon's eyes for good measure!
What Zanu PF is forgetting here is that the international community is well aware of what the party is up to. They will not accept Zanu PF's landslide victory when they do not even know if those who voted are on voters' roll and how many multiple votes the casted because there is no clean and verified voters' roll!
How can the international community judge these elections as having been free, fair and credible when the regime has clearly failed to produce something as basic a clean and verified voters' roll?
Yes, we all know that these elections are done, Zanu PF has a landslide victory already in the bag - ZEC is just waiting for the nation to go through the motion of voting on the 30 July 2018 and then announce the result. Fortunately for the people of Zimbabwe no one will recognise Zanu PF's victory, not this time!
@ Question mark
The failure to produce a ballot papers in a transparent and secure way is important in ensuring the elections are free, fair and credible but it is not the only failure by ZEC. ZEC has also failed to produce a clean and verified voters' roll although this is legal requirement. Come voting day a million plus voters will be denied the vote because they have turned up at the wrong polling station. This year's one-voter one-polling station is even worse than 2013 one-voter one-constituency voters' roll when nearly one million were denied the vote.
Meanwhile known Zanu PF loyalists will move from one polling station to the next casting multiple votes!
Chamisa and his friends should have stood firm in demanding the implementation of all the democratic reforms BEFORE elections could take place which is exactly what SADC had called for before the 2013 elections.
Of course, ZCTU are right in reading the riot act to Chamisa et al, these elections are not going to be free and fair, stop wasting the nation's time and resources and just "pull out!"
Having new ballots alone will not be enough compensate for all the other serious vote rigging irregularities. So why are we wasting time making a mountain out of a mole hill. MDC and the rest of our corrupt and opportunistic opposition must do the decent and rational thing and pull out of these sham elections!
@ Inno
The British have tried to get the EU to turn a blind eye to ED's refusal to implement any meaningful democratic reform as long as he promised to do so in the future. The EU have refused to buy that nonsense.
The trouble with tyrannical regime is that they very often end up believing their own lies Zanu PF has just become one such victim. The regime's propaganda mill went into overdrive soon after the November coup selling the idea that booting out Mugabe and a few around him has transformed the party from the party of corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs into a democratic party. There was a "new dispensation" and Zimbabwe was open for business. All lies, of course.
ED promised to hold free, fair and credible elections and yet refused to implement even one reform. He wanted to keep all the carte blanche powers to rig elections; what a phony democratic new dispensation!
Clearly ED and the junta are working on the assumption that the whole world has been fooled into believing Zanu PF was transformed and these elections are free, fair and credible! The junta is so naive it believe the whole world will judge these elections as being free and fair even if the regime has failed to produce something as basic as a clean and verified voters' roll! Dream on Inno, dream on ED, dream on junta because you are in for a rude awakening!
@ Inno
After the coup ED had no choice but to promise free, fair and credible elections and, to get one or two more brownie points, he even agreed to allow western nation to observe the elections. Promising free and fair elections was one thing but delivering was another especially for one hell bend on rigging the elections!
Zanu PF is rigging these election but is NOT, I repeat NOT, going to get away with it!
@ Inno
Mugabe thought he was enlightened and smart as whip right up until the small hours of 15 November 2017! The tyrant, King Belshazzar in the Book of Daniel, had be weighed in the balances and found wanting.
What ED has failed to understand is that the writing on the wall was not just for Mugabe alone but for all his corrupt, incompetent, vote-rigging and murderous regime!
Ever since the November coup, ED considers himself the enlightened one and even smarter than his old boss Mugabe. He is cocky, cocksure of his long, long reign ahead! "Zanu PF ichatonga! Igotonga!" (Zanu PF will rule! And rule!), he has crowed from the rooftop!
The November coup was just one of the notable events in the demise of the Zanu PF dictatorship there is more to come. The next dramatic event in the dismantling of Zanu PF will be as one by one the international election observers give their thumbs down to these flawed and illegal elections, sham elections that are but a mockery to democracy and human decency!
"Mene, Mene, Tekel, and Parsin!" read the writing on King Belshazzar's wall.
ED must open his eyes and he will same the same on the wall in State House! Zanu PF's reign of terror, death and destruction is drawing to a close!
Poor Chamisa, he knows that these elections are being rigged but having started his whole election campaign on the basis that "MDC has stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections!"; he is finding it very difficult to admit the elections are indeed being rigged.
One after another of the MDC leaders, they are all standing to reassure the voters there will be no violence in this year's elections as if that alone is all that matters in delivering free, fair and credible elections. With no clean and verified voters' roll many opposition supporters will be denied the vote come 30 July 2018 because many will turn up a polling station only to be told they are not in the voters' roll. This would not happen if the voters had been given reasonable time, not the 10 days, to check their details.
Meanwhile known Zanu PF loyalists will be able to move from one polling station to the next casting multiple vote!
Nelson Chamisa and his MDC friends had the golden opportunity during the GNU to implement the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections. They failed to get even one reform implemented in five years! Ever since, all the party has done is indulged in grandstanding and posturing to impress their naive and gullible followers much to Zanu PF's advantage as the later has continued to enjoy its tyrannical rule under the smoke screen of false hope.
ZCTU leaders have broken rank and told Chamisa and company these elections are not going to be free, fair and credible. They should stop playing their foolish games and "pull out!"SADC leaders have said the same thing. The genie is out of the bottle there is no putting it back.
Zanu PF is rigging these elections and MDC's "stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the vote" are clearly not working!
Chamisa can ignore the mountain of evidence that the elections are indeed being rig but that will not change reality as the result will show!
Chamisa has decided that he will only acknowledge that the elections were rigged if the results go against him. This is a very foolish proposition especial given that MDC had the golden opportunities to implement the reforms to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections. It is accepted that MDC is going into these election knowing the elections will be rigged but confident they will win rigged elections. It is therefore nonsensical for them to then complain the elections were rigged just because the lost.
SADC leaders warned MDC leaders of the folly of contesting flawed elections. Many Zimbabweans have added their voice to SADC leaders' sound advice. ZCTU is the most notable MDC ally to break rank and tell Chamisa and company to the elections are not free and fair and they must "pull out!"
The large number of ordinary Zimbabweans who have publicly condemned the holding of these elections without first implementing the reforms will only give the international election observers the confidence that there are some Zimbabweans out there with enough grey stuff between their ears to know that it is insane to keep contesting flawed and illegal elections.
The international observers are going to declared these elections null and void and have the confidence there are Zimbabweans who can implement the reforms and get the nation out of this mess. MDC leaders have lost all political credibility and the world has accepted they must just ignore Chamisa and company!
Bhasikiti, should know that the individual's vote counts for nothing given Zanu PF has the veto after all his Zanu PF years of rigging the elections. What is clear is that he, like so many other ex-Zanu PF members like Mai Mujuru who was booted out of the party at the same time, knew the elections were being rigged but had no clear how.
In 2013 nearly one million voters were denied the vote because their names were not in the constituency voters' roll they expected it to be. This would have been avoided if ZEC had produced a clean and verified voters' roll at least one month before nomination day as is required by law. ZEC has never released the 2013 election voters' roll. Never!
Guess what!! ZEC has once again failed to produce a clean and verified voters' roll for this year's elections. There will be a hell lot more than a million voters who will be denied the vote this year as the demands are even more restrictive.
This year a voter's details will be in one polling station voters roll and nowhere else. Just over 800 000 of the 5.6 registered voters were able to check their details on the provisional voters' roll during the 10 days put aside for the purpose. It was totally unrealistic to expect 5.6 million voters to check their details in the time allocated.
Meanwhile, Zanu PF loyalists will, once again as happened in 2013, be bussed from one polling station to the next casting multiple votes!
"Voting Zanu PF is spoiling the ballot!" says Bhasikiti. Zanu PF is rigging these elections and the village idiot cannot even see it!
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