There is nothing wrong with having an opinion on a given subject but when you doggedly hang on to the opinion regardless of the evidence to the contrary and even paddle the discredited opinion as truth; you are being dogmatic.
“The MDC and indeed our President's stance remains very clear and unequivocal ... ED is illegitimate Period,” reads the statement from MDC party spokesperson, Daniel Molokele.
“It remains our considered view as the people's party that Zimbabwe still does not have a popularly elected President. The results of the 2018 Presidential elections as announced are definitely not a true reflection of the people's electoral will.
“The MDC has no doubt that our own candidate, Advocate Nelson Chamisa was the outright and undisputed winner of the 2018 Presidential elections with over 2.6 million votes.”
MDC is not just being dogmatic but foolishly so!
Anyone with any democratic credentials worth a spit has dismissed Zimbabwe’s 2018 elections as a farce.
“The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability,” stated the EU Election Observer Mission final report.
“Finally, the restrictions on political freedoms, the excessive use of force by security forces and abuses of human rights in the post-election period undermined the corresponding positive aspects during the pre-election campaign. As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards.”
So if the Zimbabwe electoral process failed to meet international standards the results cannot be anything else but illegitimate. The subtle difference between EU and MDC’s position is that the former condemned both the parliamentary and presidential electoral races as illegitimate; MDC has endorsed the parliamentary race as legitimate and condemned the presidential race only. This is nonsense since the failure to produce a verified voters’ roll, for example, affects both races.
Even if one accept MDC’s position that the electoral process was fine up to the counting of the presidential votes. The party has failed to produce the supporting documentary evidence to support the claim Chamisa received 2.6 million. The judges in Constitutional Court challenge specifically asked for the evidence.
“Mr Mpofu (Chamisa’s lawyer) was also questioned on what percentage of the Presidential election result the V11 Forms (summary of polling station vote count) placed before the Court would constitute. Counsel was unable to answer the question,” reads the Constitutional Court Judgement.
“He said that the seven days within which the court application had to be lodged in terms of s 93(1) of the Constitution did not give the applicant enough time to fully collect relevant evidence that related to the validity of the Presidential election result that was declared.”
Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess because the country has been ruled by a corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship for the last 39 years. The party blatantly rigged elections to stay in power all these years. To get out of the mess, the country must first cure itself of this curse of rigged elections.
We need to implement the democratic reforms and dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorial powers to rig elections. And the surest way to get the reforms implemented is to force Zanu PF, the party and the president, to step down so we can appoint an independent body to implement the reforms.
Both the Zanu PF parliament and Mnangagwa must step down because they are all illegitimate. The half-way house MDC are asking for will mean a Zanu PF parliament playing a role in the body tasked to implement the reforms. No reforms will ever be implemented because Zanu PF will never ever reform itself out of office.
39 years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and lawlessness have left Zimbabwe in economic ruins causing heart breaking human suffering and deaths. The nation’s very survival is now of the line; we needs to cure ourselves of this curse of rigged elections as a matter of urgency. It is therefore frustrating that it is none other than Zanu PF and MDC politicians who continue to hold the nation to ransom!
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Zanu PF rigged last year's elections. The regime failed to produce a verified voters' roll, denied 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora a vote (Mnangagwa won with 2.4 million votes), etc. Having participated in the elections aware of all these glaring flaws and illegalities MDC should have just endorsed the whole elections process, as did the rest of the opposition parties.
Everyone with any democratic credential including the EU have condemned the elections as flawed. Chamisa and his MDC friends, being the opportunists they are, are cashing on the adverse reports. But instead of condemning the whole election, MDC are cherrypicking and focusing on the presidential race alone and using it to pressure Mnangagwa to give up more power.
Zimbabwe is in this political and economic mess because we are stuck with this corrupt, incompetent and, most critical of all, illegitimate regime. We need to cure ourselves of rigged elections and illegal governments and the only sure way to do this is to condemn vote rigging and stop this foolishness of selling out and cherrypicking.
Zanu PF rigged last year's elections. The regime failed to produce a verified voters' roll, denied 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora a vote (Mnangagwa won with 2.4 million votes), etc. Having participated in the elections aware of all these glaring flaws and illegalities MDC should have just endorsed the whole elections process, as did the rest of the opposition parties.
Everyone with any democratic credential including the EU have condemned the elections as flawed. Chamisa and his MDC friends, being the opportunists they are, are cashing on the adverse reports. But instead of condemning the whole election, MDC are cherrypicking and focusing on the presidential race alone and using it to pressure Mnangagwa to give up more power.
Zimbabwe is in this political and economic mess because we are stuck with this corrupt, incompetent and, most critical of all, illegitimate regime. We need to cure ourselves of rigged elections and illegal governments and the only sure way to do this is to condemn vote rigging and stop this foolishness of selling out and cherrypicking.
The security services must be fully funded to enable them to discharge their constitutional mandates, Finance and Economic Planning Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube said yesterday..
Notwithstanding the current resource constraints, Treasury has been prioritising allocations and disbursements to the security sector.
Zanu PF has always splashed resources to appease the bloated security services; especially the Army, Police and CIO; at the expense of the country's wealth generating activities. This is just voodoo economics, this nation can ill afford this foolishness especially now when the nation is broke!
MDC leader Nelson Chamisa met with the Prime Minister of Sweden and leader of the Swedish Democratic Party, Stefan Lofven on Saturday morning.
Chamisa's spokesperson Dr Nkuleleko Sibanda said, "He (Chamisa) is pushing an agenda of a free, democratic, transformed and progressive Zimbabwe. Things are being shifted around. This is about Zimbabwe, next Zimbabweans will free our country.”
Rubbish! MDC had the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections and yet failed to get even one reform implemented. NOT ONE! And now Chamisa is posturing and pretending he cares!
"The MDC looks like a banned organisation in Zimbabwe," said Sibanda.
"Nine out of 10 rallies have been banned by the police. Our rallies are literally banned everywhere.
"We now have what appears to be a competitive authoritarian regime and I am sure the greenlight given to today's rally (in Harare) is aimed at creating a façade that there is democracy in the country.
"We are in a worse situation than during the late former president Robert Mugabe, at least he would not ban everything as it were.”
Everyone who is anybody condemned last year’s elections as a farce.
“The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability,” stated the EU Election Observer Mission final report. “Finally, the restrictions on political freedoms, the excessive use of force by security forces and abuses of human rights in the post-election period undermined the corresponding positive aspects during the pre-election campaign. As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards.”
The regime denied 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote and ZEC failed to produce a verified voters’ roll; for Pete’s sake!
MDC not only participated in these flawed and illegal elections the party has continued to participate in the political process and thus giving the illegitimate Zanu PF regime some modicum of credibility and legitimacy. MDC has done all this out of greed. MDC leaders have known all along about their greed and how participating gave the regime credibility as David Coltart, MDC Treasurer General readily admitted.
“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,” admitted Senator Coltart in his book.
“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.”
The people of Zimbabwe must wake up to the political reality that MDC leaders and corrupt, incompetent and sell-out. The party had its chances to implement the democratic reforms and end the Zanu PF dictatorship and it wasted them all. Ever since the 2008 GNU MDC have been hunting with the hounds and running with the hare.
Yes Zanu PF has created a democratic facade but it is none other than MDC who are helping propping up the facade!
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