"We are stuck with (vote rigging) ED, make it work," argue E Cross - GNU fog has never cleared P Guramatunhu

The trouble with dealing with single track minded people like Eddie Cross is once they have made up their minds on something they are off. Even a train on a single track can be stopped and even reversed; with Eddie Cross it is full steam ahead, no brakes and no reverse!

“No one can say "stop the world, I want to jump off". We are stuck with what we have and have to make it work,” he argued in his latest article in Bulawayo 24.

How tediously monotonous! We have been stuck in this rut and it has NOT worked for the last 38 years! It is absolutely insane to soldier on, that is the point!

It is this simple and single track mindedness that is points to why MDC have had so many golden opportunities to bring about the democratic reforms the country has been dying for but wasted them all. With such insane leaders as Eddie Cross, it is little wonder the country is stuck!

Zimbabwe is in a serious economic and political mess with unemployment a nauseating 90% and political paralysis as neither the ruling party, Zanu PF, nor the whole opposition camp led by MDC have a clue what to do. The root cause of the mess is the country’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections.

Zanu PF has created a de facto one-party dictatorship that has stifles all public debate and democratic competition forcing all the competent individuals to shy away from politics leaving the space to be filled with corrupt, incompetent and murderous thugs. Where one expected quality fish all we get is frogs, crocodiles and, at best, mudskippers!

The 2008 elections were a landmark elections because everyone, even  SADC and AU known for endorsing many of Zanu PF’s rigged past elections, refused to endorse the party’s victory claim that year. SADC helped hammer out a Global Political Agreement spelling out the need for Zimbabwe to implement a raft of democratic reforms to be implemented to stop Zanu PF rigging future elections. A Government of National Unity (GNU) was formed to implement the reforms!

The task of implementing the reforms fall on the MDC partner in the GNU, not Zanu PF, for the obvious reason that the latter would not want its carte blanche powers to rig elections removed. Eddie Cross was an MP and very a senior member of the MDC led by the late Morgan Tsvangirai, he was even considered for ministerial appointment in the GNU. To the utter horror of everybody who followed Zimbabwe politics, MDC leaders failed to get even one reform implemented in five years of the GNU.

SADC leaders warned Tsvangirai et al not to go into the 2013 elections without first implementing the reforms. “If you go into next month’s elections you will lose; the elections are done!” they warned.

As we know MDC leaders paid no heed and Zanu PF went on to blatantly rig that year’s elections as SADC leaders had predicted.

Five years later, with still not reforms in place MDC were once again warned of the folly of taking part in a flawed and illegal election process in which Zanu PF had carte blanche powers to rig the elections. Sadly MDC leaders, once again, paid no heed and, as expected Zanu PF blatantly rigged the elections. Eddie Cross wants us to believe otherwise!

“How are we doing so far? Well here is my personal check list, it may not be to the liking of many, but I think it represents where we are and what might lie ahead,” he argued.

“Firstly, we have held another election, it was more open, democratic and acceptable than any other election I can recall, and I have been a player in all of them since 1980.”

There was an impressive list of international election observers, from nations Mugabe had kept out in the past; not even one of them have said the elections were free, fair and credible. How could they; when there was no free public media, when 2 to 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora where denied the vote, when ZEC failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll, etc.?

Mr Cross does not deny any of the above irregularities and thus carefully avoid denying the elections were rigged. He instead argues that we must accept these rigged elections because past elections were worse!

What matters is we have been stuck in this mess because we failed to hold free, fair and credible elections and because these elections were rigged it means we are still stuck.

“Secondly, it is now clear that the international community has accepted the above outcome - with reservations,” Eddie continued.

“This government is being offered legitimacy - not on an open platter but on condition that the government meets expectations and implements reforms to economic and political policies which will deliver a more stable and growing economy and a free and fair election in 2023.”

First of all no one in the international community, except the usual suspects like China who have no clue what they are talking about, has endorse the recent elections as free, fair and credible. Second, the same conditions Eddie is taking about were laid before President Mnangagwa before the recent elections by the Americans why would they now want to pretend Zanu PF did not know it was expected to fulfil these condition in 2018!

After 38 years of rigged elections everyone knows that once Zanu PF is left off the illegitimate hook they will forget about implementing any reforms. Expecting this Zanu PF regime to do so this time is just wishful thinking on MR Cross’s part.

“Thirdly, the new president, for the first time, is asking the whole country for help to secure the future. He has extended the hand of reconciliation to the opposition, he has stated time and time again that he wants an inclusive and more open government and wants to put the past behind us,” says Eddie Cross.

Now suppose President Mnangagwa FAILS to deliver the “secure future” he is promising do you really think he would honour the promise to hold free, fair and credible elections? Of course not! We will be back where are today with Zanu PF having blatantly rigged the elections and the new president, whoever that might be, extending his hand of friendship and asking us all to put the past behind us.

If we are serious about ending this scourge of rigged elections then we must stop making excuses for accepting rigged elections and pretending we can hold one-party dictatorship to democratic account.

Zimbabwe is the poorest nation in Africa but only because for the last 38 years we have failed to deal with our problem of bad governance as exemplified by the curse of rigged elections. Until we bite the bullet and deal with this problem this country will sink deeper and deeper into the abyss of poverty, hopelessness and despair.

Single track minded leaders like Eddie Cross are not helping the nation see the problem much less come up with the solution. They have either wasted many golden opportunities to solve the problem because they cannot think or listen to sound advice, their minds is a fog that never clears. They are now part of the problem not the solution.