President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his fellow coup plotters knew the world at large did not approve of the November 2017 military coup that toppled Mugabe. To earn himself some brownie points, Mnangagwa promised to hold free, fair and credible elections. And in addition, he would allow election observers and reporters from West, whom Mugabe had barred, to cover the elections.
Mnangagwa did not keep his promise, the July 2018 elections were not free, fair and credible; he failed to implement even one token democratic reform. The West election observers including the Commonwealth mission condemned the elections 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 Mission final report.
“Many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards.”
The damning reports have left Mnangagwa smarting from a legitimacy problem; one his main political opponent, Nelson Chamisa has taken full advantage of. Mnangagwa is under increasing pressure to implement democratic reforms designed to take away Zanu PF’s carte blanche power to rig elections.
If the next elections are held with no reforms implemented, the legitimacy problem will not go away. Indeed, given all the other problems of the worsening economic, the all but collapsed health and education service, etc. the legitimacy problem will only amplify all the other problems.
Zanu PF has no intention of implementing the reforms and so the party is left with only one way of dealing with the illegitimacy problem - making sure they are no observers to condemn the flawed and illegal elections.
"I should congratulate Malawi, for the first time in our region, possibly on the continent, here is a country which has had the general elections without foreign observers, without the United Nations, African Union, SADC and almost all these civil society organisations observing elections," Mnangagwa addressing President Lazarus Chakwera of Malawi. The latter is on a state visit to Zimbabwe.
“This makes us think whether it’s still necessary in future for SADC countries to look for supervision from across oceans.”
President Mnangagwa has reverted to the old Zanu PF argument that the West has condemned Zimbabwean elections as a farce and imposed the economic sanctions on country as punishment for party’s land reform policy.
“These sanctions were a direct response by Britain and her allies to Zimbabwe’s land reform programme in 1999/2000,” he explained to his guest.
“We make no apologies for taking back our land and we are happy that the people have been reunited with their land.”
This is an insult to every Zimbabwean out there because Zanu PF has never held free, fair and credible elections, starting with the 1980 elections. It is no secret that Zanu PF did not withdraw many of its Zanla operative to assembly points as agreed in the Lancaster House Agreement. The operatives’ campaign message to the voters was that the civil war would continue, if Zanu PF lost the elections. And so the people voted to end the war.
Some people argued that the Zanu PF war threat was a bluff. No one has ever doubted Zanu PF’s murderous intend since the party launched the 1983 to 1987 Gukurahundi massacre. The barbaric violence targeted PF Zapu leaders and supporters to either wipe out party or force the party to join Zanu PF. To stop further bloodshed, the late Dr Joshua Nkomo signed the Unity According paving the way for the imposing of the de facto one-party, Zanu PF, dictatorship that has ruled the country with an iron fist to this day.
Zanu PF’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections has everything to do with the establishment and retention of the country’s one-party dictatorship. The 1999 Zanu PF land reform and the sanctions are smoke screens to hide the truth. How did the land reform or sanctions stop ZEC producing verified voters’ roll, for example?
Besides everyone, including SADC and AU election observers known for endorsing Zimbabwe’s flawed elections until then, condemned Zimbabwe’s 2008 elections for the blatant cheating and wanton violence. What ax did SADC and AU have to grind with Zanu PF then?
Even if President Mnangagwa was to get his wish and banish all the western nations and organisations from observing Zimbabwe’s elections. And all those who do observe the election rub stamp the flawed and illegal elections as free, fair and credible that will not change the reality on the ground - Zimbabwe will still be a pariah state ruled by corrupt, vote rigging tyrants.
As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state the country’s economic meltdown will only get worse. Already unemployment has soared to dizzying heights of 90%; basic services like health care and education have all but completely collapsed; as of last year, 2019, 34% of the population were living in abject poverty; etc.; etc. The corona virus outbreak has made the situation even worse. The economic situation in Zimbabwe is unsustainable making the socially and politically unstable.
Mnangagwa will not need to rig the elections if the economic is booming. He can boot out the foreign election observers to rig legitimacy but, as Mugabe was forced to admit, his days in power are numbered as long as nothing is done to end the worsening economic meltdown.
Ultimately it is the long suffering Zimbabweans; not the election observers, honest or otherwise; who will decide who rules Zimbabwe. The worsening economic situation will force the people to demand change.
“It is the economy, stupid!” that is ending the Zanu PF dictatorship!
5 comments:
Mnangagwa promised to hold free, fair and credible elections soon after the November 2017 military coup just to take the sting out of the criticism for having staged the coup in the first place. He was not going to implementing the reforms and risk losing the elections and power. He did keep his party thugs on the leash throughout the election campaign and was hoping that was going to be enough to let him off the hook. He was disappointed to see that was not enough and so now he was to banish the West election observers and so stop the negative press at source.
Unfortunately for Mnangagwa the battle of legitimacy is but a side show the real battle is stopping the economic meltdown.
It is very disappointing that there are still some leaders who still believe Mnangagwa's cock and bull story about the land issue and sanctions being the cause of Zimbabwe's economic meltdown. Among the SADC leaders we know SA President Cyril Ramaphosa believes that rubbish. One only hopes that there are not many other SADC leaders who believe the nonsense. Zimbabwe is facing a serious situation and there is no time to waste on foolishness.
Initially the EU had said it was going to follow SADC's lead in judging Zimbabwe’s July 2018 elections, they changed their mind when they observed what was happen on the ground. The EU could not in all honest endorse the elections as being free and fair when the whole process was full of counting errors, was not transparent and could not be traced or verified.
Mnangagwa thought the West would ignore all the other blatant vote rigging machinations as long as he kept his violent party thugs on the leash - which he did. SADC and the AU were clearly impressed that the elections had been relatively peaceful, at least compared to the mayhem of 2008. The West was not going to be so easily fooled.
Mnangagwa has no intention of implementing any meaningful democratic reforms and so the next elections are certain to be a repeat of the 2018 elections complete with counting errors, no transparency, etc. Even if he manages to keep his party thugs on the leash again; it is certain the EU and the rest of the West will once again condemn the elections. SADC and AU will follow the West’s lead and condemn the elections particularly if there was to be any violence!
The people of Zimbabwe are finally opening their eyes and minds to the reality that the MDC leaders are corrupt, incompetent and they sold-out big time in failing to implement even one reform during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. The people are now aware that by participating in flawed elections the opposition are selling-out of free and fair elections. The dog-eat-dog fight between the two MDC factions is further evidence of just how useless the MDC is.
Mnangagwa’s legitimacy after the next elections will be called into question big time if the West was to once again condemn the elections and worse still if SADC and AU were to do the same. And having a totally discredited opposition participating in those elections will not help Mnangagwa, not this time!
After 40 years of resisting regime change, Mnangagwa is finally meeting his Waterloo! He would rather burn down the whole country than give up power; our task is to make sure he gives up power without dragging the nation any deeper into this hell-on-earth Zanu PF has dragged us into this far!
@ Prince Njagu
On 2 October 2020, the ZANU PF led government published a new statutory instrument 225 of 2020 which prohibits the holding of by-elections in Zimbabwe indefinitely. The government gazetted SI 225 of 2020 bans the holding of by-election until the covid-19 pandemic dies out.
This move has been viewed by political experts and other analysts as a death to democracy and emergence of a dictatorship.
Medical experts and researchers believe that this global pandemic which has claimed over a million lives this year alone will be around for a while until a time a vaccine has been developed.
This is a nonsense argument; there is no democracy in Zimbabwe, Zanu PF killed it by rigging the 1980 elections and has been rigging elections ever since. Zimbabwe is a de facto one-party dictatorship that has held regular but meaningless elections.
Zanu PF blatantly rigged the 2018 elections. ZEC failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll for Pete’s sake and so you could not trace or verify the registered voters, who voted, the cast votes, etc., etc.
Zanu PF has allowed the opposition to win a few gravy train seats because the party needed to keep the multi-party smoke screen for its own legitimacy. The opposition have been fighting amongst themselves and many have been recalled. Most of the by-elections are to fill these recalled seats.
Zanu PF has its 2/3 majority and the presidency from the rigged July 2018 elections and so the party will not be particularly bothered who win these by-elections. Zimbabwe will still be a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging thugs whether or not the by-elections go ahead.
The corona virus is a deadly health problem and if these by-elections went ahead it is almost certain that many more people will get the virus at these rallies. It is particularly worrying since Zanu PF is renowned for forcing people to attend rallies and to go out and vote. It is foolish to put the health of the nation at risk in pursuit of a fool’s errant - a dictatorship masquerading as a democracy.
When Zanu PF successfully rigged the 1980 elections, the party saw to it that democracy would not take root in Zimbabwe; it was a still-birth. You cannot pass a SI to kill something that died 40 years ago; it is an oxymoron!
Mnangagwa was disappointed that the West election observers condemned the July 2018 elections as a farce. He thought that they would give him credit for keeping his party thugs from rough up everyone and overlook the blatant but nonetheless none violent vote rigging machinations. He was very thankful that SADC and the AU were impressed with the peaceful conduct of the campaign (they conveniently overlook the wanton violence of 1 st August 2018, the day after the voting).
Mnangagwa is really worried that the West will once again condemn the next elections and if SADC and the AU were to do the same then he will be in serious trouble. SA has already expressed its concerns about the growing economic and political crisis in Zimbabwe and by refusing to endorse another rigged election SA will force Zanu PF to sit up and listen.
The worsening economic situation will make the people of Zimbabwe more and more restless and demand meaningful change.
Mnangagwa has no clue what to do to revive Zimbabwe's comatose economy and he knows that Zanu PF has no chance of winning free and fair elections with the country's economy in such a mess. He has no choice but the rig the elections. The problem of legitimacy and the economic meltdown are squeezing him hard. He is hoping that by banishing the West from observing the next elections will ease the legitimacy headache!
@ S Ndlovu
“Wilbert Mukori EU utter rubbish and you too Mukori...Wilbert what you must know is that ZIMBABWE CAME THROUGH THE BARREL OF THE GUN NOT ON A FOOD PLATTER...EU AND ITS ALLIES IN ZIMBABWE IS NOTHING. ..Zimbabweans will never returned their hard WON Independence to the Former British Settlers through the So Called Democrats The MDC ALLIANCE. ..Sorry Mukori that won't happen in Zimbabwe.”
You are right Zimbabwe’s independence was won through the barrel of the gun but before we say it was job done we must interrogate: What exactly does independence mean?
If independence meant ending oppressive and exploitative white colonial rule and taking back our land; then it was job done.
For your own information the people demanded “One man! One vote!” It was the clarion call in the fight for independence. Even if Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies were to argue that they never heard any black people ask for “One man! One vote!” They cannot deny that it was reasonable expectation to end white oppression but not only to replace it with black oppression.
Mnangagwa did promise to hold free, fair and credible elections, presumably because he recognises the right of all Zimbabweans to a meaningful say in the governance of the country. He does not deny that 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora were denied the vote. When he was in New York for the UN General Assembly, he promised to facilitate the diaspora vote in the next election - proof he could have done it if he had wanted to.
The July 2018 elections was organised chaos. ZEC failed to produce a verified voters’ roll, a legal and common sense requirement, and so could not trace and verify anything.
In the past Zanu PF has accused the opposition of being puppets of the West and thus justified rigging elections to protect the country’s independence and sovereignty. Well Mnangagwa should say so, admit he rigged the July 2018 elections, and stop blubbering all this nonsense that the elections were free, fair and credible.
The claim Zanu PF is rigging the elections to protect the country’s independence and sovereignty, must be dismissed with the contempt it rightly deserves. This is no different from the white colonialists’ claim that they were denying the blacks a vote protect the country from the communists!
Indeed, Zanu PF is so heavily indebted to the Chinese, financially and political, Zimbabwe is now but a Chinese colony in all but name. The Chinese are not only playing a major role in Zimbabwe’s rigged national elections, they are the ones pulling the strings in the Zanu PF leadership too.
Mugabe booted out Anjin, a Chinese company at the heart of the wholesale looting of the country’s diamonds, from Marange and he was himself booted out of power and Anjin was welcomed back in Marange soon thereafter!
The people’s right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country is sacrosanct it is the basis of good governance. Zimbabwe is in this political and economic mess precisely because the nation has been stuck for 40 years with this corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship. The people have failed to remove it form office because the party rigged the elections.
Only a village idiot would agree that the nation must remain stuck in this economic and political mess in which millions now living in abject poverty and many are dying in anguish and despair in pursuit of Zanu PF’s warped logic put the imaginary independence and sovereignty above the people’s freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful vote and even the right to life itself!
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