Zimbabwe Social Democrats PRESS STATEMENT
SADC and AU leaders must judge Zimbabwe 2023 elections to international democratic standards and not to some compromise one-foot long yard stick.
In a year from now, July 2023, Zimbabweans will be going to the
poll to elect a new government. Already there are signs these elections will
not be free, fair and credible, which is not surprising since they are just a
repeat of the rigged past elections.
If we used the 2008 elections as the benchmark; everyone
including SADC and the AU who until that year had always turned a blind eye to
Zimbabwe’s rigged elections, agreed the 2008 elections were a farce following
the blatant cheating and use of wanton violence by Zanu PF. Both SADC and AU
refused to give Zanu PF political legitimacy and forced the party to sign the
2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA).
The GPA called for the implementation of a raft of democratic
reforms to restore the rule of law, restore the individual freedoms and rights
and to stop the repeat of the blatant cheating and wanton violence that had
marred the 2008 elections. A Government of National Unity (GNU); comprising of
Zanu PF led by Robert Mugabe, MDC T and MDC M led by Morgan Tsvangirai and
Arthur Mutambara respectively; was established and tasked to implement the
reforms. SADC led by South Africa was the guarantor of the GPA.
Not even one meaningful reform was implemented throughout the
2008 to 2013 GNU. The main culprits for this failure were Morgan Tsvangirai and
his MDC friends who took their eyes off the reforms ball. Mugabe bribes them
with the trappings of high office and, with their snouts in the feeding trough,
they forgot about the reforms.
SADC and we, the ordinary Zimbabweans, could and should have
done a better job of ensuring MDC leaders implemented the reforms. We did not!
SADC made a last-minute concerted effort to get the electoral
reforms, at least, implemented before the 2013 elections. “If you go into the
elections next month, you will lose! The elections are done!” SADC leaders told
Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends to their faces.
As we know, MDC leaders ignored SADC leaders’ warning and
participated in the 2013 elections only to complain that Zanu PF had rigged the
elections. SADC ignored MDC’s complains, endorsed the election as
“substantially free and fair” and thus granted Zanu PF legitimacy.
Of course, Zanu PF had indeed blatantly rigged the 2013
elections, as the SADC leaders had rightly predicted just a month before the voting.
The only rational explanation for the regional leaders’ volte-face to endorse
the rigged elections is because SADC leaders were disappointed with MDC leaders’
failure to implement reforms during the GNU and for ignoring the advice not to
participate in the elections without implementing reforms.
So, disappointed they gave up the fight for reforms and free and
fair elections in Zimbabwe. And they decided to grant Zanu PF legitimacy to punish
the MDC leaders.
The tragic reality is by endorsing rigged Zimbabwe elections SADC
and AU have not only punished MDC leaders but the ordinary Zimbabweans too, who
have borne the brant of the Zanu PF tyranny and the consequences bad governance.
“The electoral commission (ZEC) 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.”
The EU Election Observer Mission final report made 23
recommendations which, if implemented, would bring Zimbabwe 2023 elections to
international standards. Sadly, not even one of the recommendations have been
implemented.
Both SADC and AU election observers judged Zimbabwe’s 2018
elections as “substantially free and fair”. With not even one token reform
implemented since the last elections it is already evident that Zanu PF is
rigging the 2023 elections too!
It is outrageous, that 42 years after independence Zimbabweans
should still be fighting Zanu PF and the sell-out opposition to secure their
basic right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country.
Indeed, both Zanu PF and MDC/CCC have ignored demands for
implementing reforms before elections content in the knowledge that both SADC
and AU will endorse the rigged elections giving Zanu PF legitimacy. It is therefore
clear we, in Zimbabwe, must fight Zanu PF, MDC/CCC, SADC and AU to have reforms
implemented. So be it!
Zanu PF is blatantly rigging the 2023 elections, “the elections
are done!” as SADC leaders aptly put back in 2013. The prospect of SADC and AU
once again declaring the rigged elections “substantially free, fair and
credible” is real.
We will question SADC and AU’s basis for declaring rigged
elections “substantially free and fair”; especially those nation with a history
of holding free, fair and credible elections. Zimbabwe elections must be judged
against the internationally accepted democratic standards and not some one-foot
long yard stick!
Signed
Wilbert Mukori
ZSD Secretary General.
Email:zimbabwesocialdemocrats@gmail.com
1 comment:
Some teachers, for the love of one-day allowances, are prepared to be deployed as election agents away from their polling station, making them unable to vote.
In 2018, Zec presidential results show that then MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa failed to force Zanu-PF candidate Mnangagwa to a run-off with less than 32 000 votes.
Zec displaced five teachers per each of the 11 000 polling stations in the country as a rigging strategy.
In 2023, teachers must liberate themselves. There is no reason for teachers to fail to encourage rural voters to participate and vote for change.”
Chitando and his CCC friends have managed to register 250 000 new voters since 2018, a mere 4% of their target 6 million and now they want teachers to do to it. The party’s flagship strategy of mass voter registration followed by mass voting is dead in the water! This strategy was doomed to fail because Zanu PF was always going to win since it controls every aspect of the voting process, including voter registration. It is common knowledge that ZEC made it near impossible for opposition supporters to register, for example, and yet had extended office hours to midnight to register Zanu PF supporters.
Chitando knows Zanu PF is rigging these elections and has even the chutzpah to blame “greedy teachers” for the electoral defeat. Chitando and his MDC/CCC friends are the real villains here because the failed to implement the reforms and have participated in these flawed elections out of selfish greedy and incompetence.
Post a Comment