“MDC Monday stood firm it will never relent on its stance not to recognise President Emmerson Mnangagwa as the country’s legitimately elected leader,” reported New Zimbabwe.
“This comes after Family of God Church founder, Reverend Andrew Wutaunashe urged the main opposition’s leader Nelson Chamisa to abandon his legitimacy challenge against the Zanu PF number one.”
Mnangagwa says he is the winner of last year’s elections and Chamisa says he is the winner; neither of the two gentlemen have been able to produce any documentary evidence to prove their claim because there is no such evidence. The whole election process was flawed and illegal.
3 million voters in the diaspora were denied the vote; that is more voters than each of the two gentlemen claim they won. Mnangagwa claims that he got 2.4 million votes and Chamisa says he got 2.6 million.
ZEC has failed to produce a verified voters’ roll although this is a legal and, needless to say, common sense requirement.
The rural voters were subjected to all manner of bribe and intimidation reducing them to more than medieval serfs beholden to the overbearing Zanu PF operatives and traditional leaders.
EU had a team of 246 election observers and they condemned the election as a farce.
“The electoral commission lacked full independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner,” concluded the EU Mission final report.
“The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability. As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards.”
So if so many voters were denied the vote, there was no voters’ roll to show who voted, the voting process was so chaotic that no one could trace and verify any figures, etc., etc. - in short, “failed to meet international standards -; then how can such an illegal totally discredited process still produce a legitimate winner?
Both Mnangagwa and Chamisa do not care that Zimbabwean elections are not free, fair and credible. All Mnangagwa wants is to retain power at all cost, including blatantly rigging the elections and even using wanton violence as we have seen repeatedly already. As for Chamisa, he doesn’t mind that Zanu PF rigs elections as long as he gets a share of the spoils of power.
Chaos, confusion and unadulterated greed are at the very heart of Zimbabwe’s economic mess and political paralysis. For 39 years the country has been stuck with this corrupt and dysfunctional political system because both Zanu PF and MDC have failed to implement the democratic reforms to guarantee free, fair and credible elections.
The fight by both Chamisa and Mnangagwa to be declared the winner of what is clearly a flawed and illegal election process epitomises what is wrong in Zimbabwe - both Zanu PF and MDC are not interested in correcting the country’s dysfunctional and failed political system as long as they remain in power.
Zimbabwe is in a serious economic and political mess and the country desperately needs meaningful political change now to get out of the mess. Instead of the implementing the democratic changes, the country has wasted over a year arguing about who won the rigged elections.
6 comments:
Three Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) officials face expulsion from the institution after an investigation disclosed that they were working with the civil society and opposition parties in the 2018 harmonised elections, a report has claimed.
The officials were reportedly feeding the opposition with information on what was happening in ZEC in a bid to prevent the rigging of the elections. The publication quotes its source as saying:
The opposition was well informed and always on point in various issues prior to the elections, amid suspicion of the existence of a mole or moles within the system.
Once due process is done, the report on internal investigations will be transmitted to the ZEC chairperson, who is likely to order a disciplinary hearing of the three.
The real tragedy here is these officials are being punished for trying to stop elections being rigged!
The root cause of Zimbabwe's economic meltdown is the country being stuck with this corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship. The party has managed to stay in power all these years because it rigged elections. So those calling for Mnangagwa to be recognised as the legitimate president are failing to grasp the big and core issue here - the bad governance because of rigged elections. We cannot deal with the economic meltdown without dealing with the corruption and mismanagement fuelling the it.
The church leaders who want us to sweep under the carpet the failure to hold free, fair and credible elections are asking us to bury our heads in the sand and pretend we do not have a big problem of rigged elections and bad governance.
Nelson Chamisa and his MDC friend are not doing the nation any big favours in trying to end the problem of bad governance. MDC had the golden opportunity to implement the reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU and they failed to get even one reform implemented. Not one!
MDC know last year's elections were rigged but are prepared to accept the rigged elections if Zanu PF give them an even bigger share of the spoils of power. Chamisa is desperate o get back on the gravy train and will declare the rigged elections free, fair and credible if he was offer a cabinet position in this Zanu PF regime.
The sooner Zimbabweans wake up to the reality that MDC have been running with the hare and hunting with the hounds the better for us all!
I agree with you 100%, last year's elections were so flawed and illegal the whole process has to be dismissed as null and void. It is nonsense for any of the contestants to claim victory when they cannot produce supporting and verifiable documents to show how they arrived at their respective figure.
Yes Mnangagwa is illegitimate but so too will be Chamisa; a flawed and illegal process cannot produce a legitimate winner! Indeed, the MPs and Senators too are illegitimate because the whole electoral process was flawed and illegal.
Chamisa and his fellow corrupt and incompetent MDC village idiots got us into this political s***t and now they are keeping us there because of their foolishness. MDC leaders sold-out big time during the GNU by failing to implement even one reform. And now they do not care that last year’s elections were rigged and the nation is stuck with a corrupt and tyrannical dictatorship as long as they get a share of the spoils of power.
@ Fungai
Wither to Zimbabwe, indeed!
We, the long suffering voters, have, at the end of the day, to blame ourselves for our naivity and suffering. Zimbabweans should know that MDC leaders have failed to implement even one reform in 20 years. Chamisa and company have been running with the hare and hunting with the hounds and yet Zimbabweans have continued to support MDC regardless.
Yes Zimbabweans voters are as helpless as grass under the feet of elephants but only because they have elected to be that helpless! Nations get the government they deserve and we certain deserve this Zanu PF dictatorship complete with the entourage of opposition village idiots!
@ Nduna
What logistic problems would arise if Zimbabweans in the diaspora were asked to go to the embassy to register as voters and then go back there to vote. Zimbabweans had offered to pay, say £10, and if 2 million had taken the offer this would have raised £ 20 million!
Zanu PF did not want to give the Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote for one reason - the party would not be able to rig their vote!
Said VP Chiwenga: "His Excellency the President has a meeting with all political actors who participated in the 2018 harmonised elections under the Political Actors Dialogue except for one or two political parties that are yet to join others. There is no doubt that a peaceful environment in our country translates into socio-economic development, empowerment and growth of our country.
"Let me, therefore, reiterate His Excellency's view that as Zimbabweans we are capable of finding enduring solutions to our own challenges. As such, home-grown solutions are to be pursued than international mediation that other parties are trying to pursue.
"Hatiende kunotsvaga nyamukuta kunext door. Vana nyamukuta vedu tinavo muno.”
By participating in last year’s flawed and illegal elections, the opposition village idiots gave some modicum of credibility to the process and now Zanu PF is going one step further and consolidate that with this POLAD.
What Zanu PF is refusing to accept is that by blatantly rigging the elections the party confirmed to the world that Zimbabwe was still very much the same pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs.
The world was not fooled by the village idiots participating in the elections, the world condemn the process as a farce. The world is not going to be fooled by POLAD even if Chamisa and his MDC village idiots joined. Even if Zanu PF gave in to MDC demands to have outsider mediation; as long as Zanu PF remain in power Zimbabwe will remain a pariah state.
What VP Chiwenga has yet to acknowledge is the seriousness of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown, hospitals have closed and people are dying. He does not care because he and his fellow ruling elite go outside the country for their health care needs and lots more beside. There is a “soft genocide”, as someone aptly called it, taking place in Zimbabwe and Chiwenga and his Zanu PF cronies will be held to account!
Post a Comment