In an interview with AFP Nelson Chamisa admitted that Zimbabwe’s electoral process has “always attracted controversy” and is “littered with rigging, manipulation” and it is his reaction that we should focus on.
“It’s going to be a rough campaign, hard hat equipment is necessary,” said Chamisa.
“It’s quite a hostile environment, we need to be equipped for it.”
It is this reckless and cavalier attitude coupled with the inert inability to comprehend the core values, separating the grain from the chuff, which explain why Zimbabwe has failed to hold free, fair and credible elections these last 43 years. We are stuck!
Zimbabweans are going to the election in five months or so and yet ZEC has still stubbornly refused to produce a verified voters’ roll. The Commission has already produced the delimitation report; no one knows what voters’ roll was used to do the delimitation.
The law demands that there should be a verified voters’ roll at least one calendar month before nomination day. This is no likely to happen before the 2023 elections. In the past Nelson Chamisa and his friends in the opposition have participated in the elections without a verified voters’ roll. They are set to do so again this year.
Zanu PF has denied 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote, reneging on a promise Mnangagwa made is 2018. There will be no diaspora vote as long as the sanctions imposed on Zanu PF leaders by the West remain, explained Zanu PF’s Patrick Chinamasa. The Zanu PF leaders on the sanctions list are barred from travelling freely in the western nation that imposed the sanction and thus putting the party at a disadvantage came the campaigning for diaspora vote. This is just a feeble excuse for denying diaspora vote.
For a start, why should the Zimbabweans in the diaspora be denied their fundamental right just because Zanu PF and the West have quarrelled? Even if one accepted the travel ban will put Zanu PF at a disadvantage, why has the regime denied the vote to Zimbabweans in SADC countries and all the other countries which have no travel restrictions on party leaders.
The truth is Most of the Zimbabweans in the diaspora are economic and/or political refugees and they blame Zanu PF for their plight. They are therefore not likely to vote for the regime. And, to crown it all, the Zanu PF vote rigging machinations effective in Zimbabwe will not be so effective in foreign lands.
It should be noted here that Mnangagwa won the 2018 elections with 2.4 million or 50.8% of the votes; the 3 million diaspora votes constitute 37% of the potential voters.
How can the election be free, fair and credible there is no verified voters’ roll or when one side is allowed to cherry pick the electorate and deny 37% of the potential voters the vote?
There are no “hard hat area” measures Chamisa or anyone can take to stop rigging when there is no verified voters’ roll. The verified voters’ roll is the Bible against to carry a thorough audit of who is eligible to vote, who voted, etc., etc.
MDC leaders failed to implement even one token democratic reform to end the Zanu PF autocratic rule in 23 years, including the 5 in the 2008 to 2013 GNU because they were confident of winning the 2013 elections “regardless of the Zanu PF vote rigging shenanigans”, as the late Morgan Tsvangirai admitted to journalist Tawanda Majoni.
The truth is Chamisa and company do not real care how about rule of law, reforms, free elections, or how decades of bad governance have cause heartbreaking human suffering and deaths in Zimbabwe. They only thing they really care about is securing political power at all costs. Sadly, they don’t even have the common sense realise implementing the democratic reforms would have secure certain electoral victory for them.
As for the MDC/CCC post GNU position of the party having winning in rigged elections strategies. It is just hot air underlining just how naive and incompetent and utterly useless they are. As much as Chamisa is claiming to be equipped for 2023 elections; we can be certain of one thing he will be complaining of Zanu PF stealing the elections the morning after the voting is done - complaining about the very things he is saying he is equipped to deal with.
Nelson Chamisa and company will never ever implement any meaningful democratic reforms even if they were to win power be it by benefiting from another Zanu PF factional fighting, street protests, or whatever. They believe failure to produce verified voters, the culture of political violence and vote rigging, etc. is the norm. If they really care about free and fair elections, rule of law, etc. then they would have implemented the reforms when they had the golden opportunity todo so during the 2008 GNU.
4 comments:
@ Godfrey
“In the absence of a substantive and convincing alternative action .. Many have taken the last resort stance of ‘Better to die trying’ than not act positively and hope for the unproven possibility which lacks hint of SADC support. The people have nothing to hold on to that offers them chance of getting out of the predicament and have opted to hold on at straws by participating.
The circumstances leading to 1979 and 2008 were not the same as present - 1979 and 2008 had active backers.
Not participating makes sense but it’s weakness is absence of ready and waiting backers.
The ordinary voter will not buy into it abstractly.”
The EU said Zimbabwe’s 2018 elections were not to international standards and made 23 reform recommendations. Not even one reform has been implemented. The EU observer team is certain to condemn the 2023 elections just as it condemned the 2018 elections regardless of whether the opposition participate or not.
The Commonwealth observer team too condemned the 2018 elections as a farce and hence the reason they refused to recommend that Zimbabwe be readmitted back into the club. They refusal to review that decision before the 2023 elections speaks volumes on the matter.
SADC leaders told Tsvangirai and company not to participate in the 2013 elections without first implementing reforms. They have never taken that advice off the table just as much as there have been no one in the Zimbabwe opposition or community at large who have taken up the advice and ran with it.
It is therefore untrue to say “Not participating makes sense but it’s weakness is absence of ready and waiting backers.”
Even if none of the above mentioned bodies had said or done nothing to suggest which side they will back; the question one must ask who would you expect them to back? Those doing the rational thing or the insane?
There are individuals who are participating in these flawed elections because that is what CCC leaders want them to do, the very fact that it is a foolish thing is irrelevant. These individuals have followed leaders blindly and are incapable of rational thinking.
As for the CCC leaders themselves they are participating in the flawed elections because they are after the few gravy train seats Zanu PF is offering as bait. Mnangagwa has just added the US$40 000 housing loan as a bonus to whet the opposition’s appetite. Any one who thinks he can ever talk Tendai Biti, Fadzai Mahere, etc. to boycott these elections is stupid! And of course, those who have their heads stuck in these leaders’ backsides will participate too no matter what.
I, for one, have better things to do than waste time trying to win over VIs who are brain dead! The real challenge is to win SADC leaders over and stop them giving Zanu PF legitimacy. FOCUS!
@ Munyaradzi
“Varume makasimba and makashinga..reading and writing the same everyday.Sa Nyamugure vapenyu here or maremba.”
Zimbabwe is heading for yet another rigged elections and it is insane to participate in the flawed elections just to give Zanu PF legitimacy, this is the message. Since there is no sign of change of direction then the message must be repeated a thousand times a day if need be. No one, not even the VIs out there must ever say they did not know CCC's winning in rigged elections strategies were just hot air!
To argue that one should stop the foolishness of participating in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy and thus perpetuating the dictatorship because the warning was said three times today or whatever is what one would expect to hear from a VI. A VI who would rather have another rigged elections after 43 years of rigged elections than try to stop the insanity because he does not want to repeat the warning!
We have VIs who are determined to participate in these flawed elections and since they have failed to come up with a rational reason to explain their insanity they are now accusing those reminding them of their folly of being insane. Sure one of us is insane alright!
The warning that CCC are selling out in participating in these flawed elections will be repeated 1000 times a day, without failure. And not even the VIs will ever say they did not know the elections were being rigged!
@ Shumba
Who is listening?
Good question! We are in this economic and political mess because we are a nation of people who only listen to what we want to hear. Sometimes one must also listen to what the ought to hear! And it takes real character to tell people what they must hear especially when they are the VIs who believe they are wiser than King Solomon!
@ JC
“Participating is a better option. They will get some seats and influence parliament and local government. The only challenge we have is that opposition MPs and councilors are no different from Zanupf. They are cry babies. While Zanupf ones cry about sanctions with giving any solutions the MDC/CCC ones 😭 about legitimacy. We wait to see if CCC will come with a different crop.”
Zimbabwe is a failed state with all that entails. The question which must be asked here is: “Is the present political system, in which ordinary Zimbabweans are denied a meaningful say in the governance of the country, capable of pulling the nation out of the economic and political mess we are in?”
After 43 years of the same corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical misrule, surely the answer is evidently, no the system has failed. Therefore participating in the flawed election process only to give the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy and thus perpetuating the dictatorship is not just foolish, it is insane.
The real reason why some people are hell bent on participating in these flawed elections even when it is already evident the elections are being rigged and doing so will only give Zanu PF legitimacy is because they are brain dead. They hear the argument but hearing in one thing comprehending what they hear is another. Even after 43 years of rigged elections, they still believe participating in flawed elections is “a better option”!
The reason why Zimbabwe is in this mess is because we have more than our fair share of brain dead, insane, people and, to crown it all, they have a vote!
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