“Here we go!” I sighed! The minute I saw the name Eddie Cross as the author of the article in Zimeye. I expected nonsense from him and nonsense I got!
“Mr. Mnangagwa could then claim, for the first time, to be the legitimate leader of Government, even though his victory was with a tiny majority. It was only at that moment that we saw a new dispensation of sorts emerge in the form of the first really Mnangagwa controlled Cabinet,” stated Eddie Cross.
How can Mnangagwa ever be “the legitimate leader of government” when the whole election process was flawed and illegal? The regime denied 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora a vote. ZEC failed to produce a verified voters’ roll, etc.
Mr Cross was a senior member of the MDC that had the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU which would ended Zanu PF’s carte blanche powers to rig elections. MDC leaders were warned not to take part in 2013 and then 2018 elections without first implementing the reforms. They would not listen out of greed, as one MDC leader, David Coltart, confessed.
“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,” confessed 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 EU, Americans, the Commonwealth and everyone else with any democratic credential worth talking about who observed the July 2018 Zimbabwe elections dismissed them as a farce.
“The electoral commission lacked full independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner. 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.
“As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards.”
Mnangagwa was able to count this by pointing out that all Zimbabwe’s opposition parties had participated in the July 2018 elections regardless of the 3 million in the diaspora denied the vote, no verified voters roll, etc., etc. And, crown it all, all those who did participate have all endorsed the process as having been free, fair and credible.
Chamisa has challenged the presidential race result but that was on one very specific aspect, the vote counting by ZEC. The Constitutional Court has since ruled in favour of Mnangagwa. Having accepted ZEC’s authority and conduct in the elections process it is nonsensical for Chamisa to reject the authority and judgement of ZEC’s sister judiciary institution, the Constitutional Court.
It is worth noting here that Mr Eddie Cross, is a senior MDC leader and colleague of Chamisa, and he has endorsed Mnangagwa’s elections as legitimate and legal.
Chamisa and the other MDC leaders have agreed to endorse Mnangagwa as legitimate if he agreed to share out the spoils of power with MDC.
“Holocaust denial, the denial of the systematic genocidal killing of approximately six million Jews in Europe by Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, is illegal in 16 European countries and Israel. Many countries also have broader laws that criminalize genocide denial,” explained Wikipedia
“Of the countries that ban Holocaust denial, some, such as Austria, Germany, Hungary, and Romania, were among the perpetrators of the Holocaust, and many of these also ban other elements associated with Nazism, such as the expression of Nazi symbols.”
One can understand why these nation passed such laws; the genocides took place, these are historic facts and the individual nations were sick and tired of being dragged back over the same issues by the few who refused to accept the truth for whatever reasons!
Zimbabwe is stuck in this political and economic mess because the country has failed to remove this corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF regime from office these last 40 years. The party has rigged elections denying the people a meaningful say in the governance of the country.
So to get out of this mess, the country needs to hold free, fair and credible elections and for that to happen we need to implement the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging elections.
It is therefore very frustrating Zanu PF blatantly rigs elections and the country’s opposition politicians are the ones, for selfish reasons, are the once siding with Zanu PF in falsely claiming the elections were free, fair and credible. It was bad enough that Eddie Cross and company sold-out in failing to implement the reforms during the GNU it is intolerable that they are now propping up this illegitimate Zanu PF dictatorship by participating in flawed and illegal elections.
The people of Zimbabwe must have stop supporting MDC and the rest of the Zimbabwe opposition party who participate in elections with no reforms implemented. These politicians are no longer fighting for free and fair elections with us, ordinary people; they are now content with rigged elections as long as they get some of the spoils of power.
The international community must add Zimbabwe’s opposition candidate on the sanctions’ list because they are now as guilty of the rigged elections as the Zanu PF politicians themselves.
We can agree to differ on many things but not on truth, reality and facts. After 40 years of rigged elections and with the nation is serious economic and political trouble as a consequence, we cannot afford to be wasting another minute arguing on what constitutes free, fair and credible elections! So those who continue to deny Zanu PF rigged July 2018 elections must be chastised, period!
7 comments:
Cannot believe that a senior MDC leader can be that stupid as to still deny that Zanu PF rigged the 2018 elections. How can Mnangagwa be the legitimate leader of government when he denied 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote, remember he says he won with 2.4 million votes!
As long as Zanu PF is able to rig the elections then we will never ever remove the regime from office. The regime has since the 2008 GNU learnt that as long as MDC get a few gravy train seats they will never implement any reforms and hence the reason we are still stuck Zanu PF!
Knowledge of ability: Yet, as Dr Nkosana Moyo warned our citizens right up to the ballot day, our awareness and desire for change must necessarily be informed by basic leadership competence and deference to the primacy of meritocracy. Elsewhere in the advanced economies we aspire to become, political leaders that drive infrastructure development, industry and technology change are talented, proven, deliberately identified and trained individuals… not popular thugs and gangster barons. Investing political change in a crop of “leaders” who have neither technical knowledge, economic competence nor demonstrable capacity individually or collectively to drive change is an exercise in futility.
l Zii Masiye (ziimasiye@gmail.com) writes elsewhere on social media as Balancing Rocks.
In interesting article thank you. Was surprised that you would pick Dr Nkosana Moyo as your exemplary leader. By participating in the 2018 elections when it was clear as day the whole election process was flawed and illegal and one purpose and one purpose only - to allow Zanu PF to blatantly rig the elections; Dr Moyo shows just how corrupt and incompetent he is.
He was warned it was folly to take part in an election without something as basic, common sense and legal requirement as a verified voters’ roll.
Only a failed leader would think he would inspire his followers to believe in change by going into a situation where change was IMPOSSIBLE!
@Zimvigil
“The sticking point was, as ever, money. The fringe parties taking part in the theatrically-named Political Actors' Dialogue (Polad) may only have gained 2% of the vote in the 2018 elections but it was an important 2% because it meant that Mnangagwa could pretend to the outside world that he was engaged in a real dialogue with the opposition when all he was doing was fishing. Then the combined forces of 2% of the opposition came out with their demands for expenses to attend these vitally unimportant discussions when they were shown around Mnangagwa's farm and how generously he feeds his fish.”
Chamisa has misled people into believing that thing would be radically different if his MDC party was involved in these political dialogues, be it in the POLAD format or some other. Let me say for the record that nothing would change. Nothing!
The EU, Commonwealth, the Americans and everyone else with any democratic sense have all dismissed the July 2018 elections as a farce. The results announced by ZEC contained numerous errors, the process was not transparent, could not trace or verify anything.
How can anyone agree to take part in an elections in which the regime failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll!
All the Zimbabwe opposition parties and candidates who did take part in the elections have only proven to the world they are corrupt, incompetent and sell-outs.
By failing to stamp out corruption and, most important of all failing to hold free, fair and credible elections Mnangagwa showed the world that Zimbabwe was still a pariah state same as it was during Mugabe’s days.
As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state the country’s economic meltdown will continue.
By participating in the flawed and illegal elections Zimbabwe’s opposition parties have shown that they are corrupt, incompetent and, most notably, they really do not care about Zimbabwe implementing the reforms and holding free and fair elections.
When it comes to rigging the elections, there is 100% political agreement and cooperation in Zanu PF, the MDC and all the opposition fringe parties to defraud the ordinary Zimbabweans the freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful vote; provided they have a share of the spoils of power.
Whilst the fringe parties have since endorse the flawed and illegal elections as having been free, fair and credible and they are enjoying the spoils of power as members of POLAD. Chamisa and his MDC A have endorse the parliamentary results and are enjoying the spoils of power as councillors, MPs and Senators.
The party has already received its cut of the Political Party Finance Act payout, a total of $3.4 million of which Chamisa, as leader, gets 20% or $680 000.
MDC has not endorsed Mnangagwa as the winner of the presidential race, Chamisa is holding out to force Zanu PF to allocate him and a few other MDC leaders cabinet position complete with the ministerial limos, generous salaries, etc., etc.
The most important thing to note here is that Zimbabwe is a pariah state because Zanu PF rigged the 2018 elections. The country has remained a pariah state after Mnangagwa launch POLAD in May 2019. It will remain a pariah state if Chamisa and his MDC A join POLAD or join the illegitimate Zanu PF regime under some other political arrangement!
The much-awaited constitutional reform process has entered a crucial stage following the gazetting of the Constitution Amendment Bill which paves way for restructuring of the supreme law.
Government recently gazetted 27 proposed amendments to the Constitution including clauses to facilitate the rollout of the devolution agenda through removing Members of Parliament from membership of provincial councils.
The amendments also include clauses permitting the President to appoint at least two more non-constituency Cabinet ministers and also extending the women's quota in Parliament by another two terms.
The women's quota was set to expire during the current Parliament.
In addition, the amendments will include a provision for the introduction of 10 extra seats in the National Assembly reserved for youths — one from each province.
Furthermore, the Bill seeks to terminate the joint election of the President and his deputies through removal of the "running mate" clause.
Joint election of the country's top leadership was set to commence in 2023.
Parliament will soon initiate nationwide public hearings into the Bill to ensure inclusivity in the law-making process.
Also, the Bill proposes that the Prosecutor-General be appointed by the President on the advice of the Judicial Service Commission without public interviews.
The tenures of the Constitutional Court and Supreme Court judges will also be extended after reaching the age of 70, for up to five years subject to a favourable medical report.
Not even one of the proposed 27 constitutional amendments will do anything to stop the blatant rigging of elections by Zanu PF as witnessed in the 2018 elections. Indeed, some on the amendments will undermine democracy by giving the already powerful president even more dictatorial powers.
The running mate clause was suspended 10 years when the constitution was passed in 2013 and now it is going to be scrapped altogether!
Zimbabwe has one of the most bloated local and national government system in the world. We have President, two VP, cabinet plus 10 provincial ministers, 210 elected MPs and have lost count of unelected ones, 89 (again possibly more) Senators, very small town has a major and there is a councillor for every few hundred voters. The new constitutional amendments seeks to create provincial government, add 10 more MPs, etc., etc.
We should not forget that Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies blatantly rigged the July 2018 elections and thus confirming Zimbabwe’s status as a pariah state. Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown is getting worse precisely because the country is a pariah state and as long as it remains thus there will be no meaningful economic recovery. None!
How is it possible that a man like Mr Eddie Cross has failed to see that Zanu PF rigged the July 2018 elections? The party denied 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspore the vote, has treated the rural voters as third class citizens who are only allowed to vote if they vote for Zanu PF, etc., etc. What else does Zanu PF have to do for him to finally open his eyes and admit Zanu PF rigs elections?
It an outsider gave the 2018 elections a thumbs up, one would condemn him/her as patronising but when it is one of your own, it hurts! Calling the MDC leaders sell-outs does not quite cut the ice for me! Yes including these MDC sell-out on the sanctions list will help put into context the seriousness of their blatant betrayal of the ordinary people!
So Zimbabweans are being denied their right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country because the west imposed sanctions on Zanu PF. This is as foolish as someone beating his wife because he lost his job. Why should the wife be punished for something that had nothing to do with her?
Elections are about the people making a meaningful say in the governance of the country and that included regime change. In other words Zanu PF is rigging the elections to stop regime change and the sanctions issue is just a feeble excuse.
The people of Zimbabwe have risked life and limb to elect people like Eddie Cross into power on the understanding they would bring about the democratic changes the nation was dying for. It is shocking that in the 20 years of MDC the party has failed to bring about even one meaningful democratic change.
"To answer oppression with appropriate resistance requires knowledge of two kinds: in the first place, self-knowledge by the victim, which means awareness that oppression exists, an awareness that the victim has fallen from a great height of glory or promise into the present depths; secondly, the victim must know who the enemy is. He must know his oppressor's real name, not an alias, a pseudonym, or a nom de plume!" said one of Africa's greatest intellectual, Chinua Achebe.
The fact that many people still view Zanu PF as the ONLY enemy of free, fair and credible elections explains why we have not made any progress in our fight for a meaningful vote. We still naively consider MDC as our partner in this fight when it is clearly evident they are now the enemy in our midst. MDC is but a mutant Zanu PF masquerading as an opposition politician and to fail to know that is to box the shadow and never to see the knock out punch!
All those who participated in the flawed and illegal July 2018 elections are not democrats, they did so out of greed and will never deliver free and fair elections. They are beyond the pale and must be cast out with their fellow Zanu PF thugs!
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