Tsvangirai will never win free elections, not with his track record, and he will therefore resist implementing the reforms.

When it comes to reforms and elections there are four basic scenarios the Zimbabwean people must be aware of. These can be present in the form of questions and answers:

a)       Is it possible to have free, fair and credible elections without implementing any of the 2008 GPA democratic reforms?

Answer: it is impossible to hold free and fair elections without implement the democratic reform. 

For anyone to ask this question it shows they have never appreciated what the GPA was about and so it is worthwhile explaining this before going any further. There are eight key points one has to understand about the Global Political Agreement (GPA): 

1)      Mugabe claimed electoral victory in Zimbabwe’s July 2008 presidential run-off but because of the wanton violence none of the outside elections observers including SADC and AU endorse the result as free, fair and credible. This created a serious legitimacy problem for Mugabe.

2)    Following months of negotiations it was finally agreed, in the GPA, that the three main political parties Zanu PF led by Robert Mugabe, MDC-T led by Tsvangirai and MDC-M led by Mutambara would form a Government of Nation Unity (GNU). SADC was to be the guarantor of the agreement whose punishment would be to withdrawal legitimacy if any of the parties in the GNU failed to honour the terms of the GPA.

3)      The GPA stipulated that the GNU would implement a raft of democratic reforms include security sector, media, judiciary reforms, and to draft a new democratic constitution which would be submitted to the people of Zimbabwe for approval in a referendum. These were agreed were the minimum requirements for free, fair and credible elections and thus prevent the repeat of the vote rigging and wanton violence of previous elections.

4)    The GNU was supposed to last for 18 months but lasted for 60 months instead; enough time for the GNU to have carried out its set tasks.

5)    Sadly not even one democratic reform was implemented at the end of the GNU. This task was for Tsvangirai and his MDC friends to do and Mugabe bribed them into doing nothing much to the disappointment of SADC and everyone else who wanted to see democratic change in the country.

6)    The new constitution was weak and feeble since it was designed to accommodate the undemocratic practices which were still in place since no democratic reforms had been implemented.

7)      The people were not paying attention to what was happening and so they failed to apply the necessary pressure to force the implementation of the reforms. As for the new constitution they believe MDC lies that it would deliver free and fair elections without even reading it for themselves. 

8)    Mugabe went on to blatantly rig the July 2013 elections to mark the end of the GPA, SADC washed its hands of Zimbabwe.

So the fuller answer to the question can there be free, fair and credible elections with no reforms implemented;  the answer is as long as Mugabe and Zanu PF retain total and undemocratic control of the Police, Media, Judiciary, ZEC, etc. they will continued to use violence and dirty tricks to rig the vote.

B) Will implementing Tsvangirai’s proposed electoral laws, MDC-T’s National Electoral Reform Agenda (NERA), be enough to deliver free, fair and credible elections!

Answer: No NERA seeks to align existing laws to the new constitution which, as stated in 6) above, is itself a weak constitution and thus inadequate for free and fair.

c) If the next elections are held in the present one-party dictatorship conditions, is there any chance of getting the new regime to implement all the GPA reforms so that future elections are free, fair and credible.

Answer: No chance! Whoever wins the next elections would want the dictatorial powers to consolidate their own political power. 

Dictatorial powers are to politics what corruption is to the economy. We have failed to eradicate corruption because whilst everyone denounces it whilst they still seeking power, once in power it would be in their power to deal with corruption but also to benefit from it most people always end up doing the latter. All those contesting the next elections appreciate Mugabe’s dictatorial powers and they would all want those powers for themselves.

d) Is there any hope, any hope at all, of forcing the implementation of the GPA reform so the next elections are free, fair and credible.

Answer: Yes there is. Mugabe has failed to rig economic recovery and the worsening economic meltdown is unsustainable; unemployment is already at 90% plus, millions are living in serious abject poverty –the type that is killing its victims, most cities and towns have no clean running water, etc. The situation is getting worse and not better.

Whether Mugabe likes it or not; the only way out of this mess political reform and regime change. The people will have to be fast off the mark and demand the full implementation of the GPA reforms because people like Tsvangirai, Mujuru, Mnangagwa, etc. eyeing the presidential post will not want any reforms because they know they will not compete if the dictatorship was replaced by a democratic one, not with their rotten past record! 

Gutu, MDC-T condemns "unlawful crushing" of RTUZ demo - mother hen making a racket but will not sue!

MDC-T spokesman Obert Gutu condemned the Police harassment and ban of civil servants demonstrations demanding government pay them their December wages and bonus. “Mugabe's Zanu-PF regime is now a de facto terrorist organisation,” he said.

For a lawyer Obert Gutu, is as stupid as they come but, worst of all, he is always showing off!

“Section 59 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe states that every person has the right to demonstrate and to present petitions, but these rights must be exercised peacefully. Of late, the Zimbabwe Republic Police and other organs of the State security apparatus have ruthlessly and unlawfully clamped down on peaceful demonstrations,” Gutu stated.

Yes section 59 of the constitution say people are allowed to hold peaceful demonstrations but Gutu should also know that the same constitution grants Mugabe the power to formulate security policy as he alone sees fit and necessary to maintain law and order. In other words if Mugabe should stipulate that the ZRP must ban all public demonstrations then all public demonstrations will be banned! 

When the first draft of the new constitution was first realised for public scrutiny in July 2012, MDC was warned again and again that the constitution has weak and feeble to deliver the democratic freedoms and rights it supposed to deliver and guarantee. Mr Gutu and his fellow MDC leaders ignored the warning and campaigned for a yes vote in the March 2013 referendum. They assured the nation the new constitution all the freedoms and rights including the right to free, fair and credible elections.

The new constitution failed its first real test a few months later in July 2013 when it failed to deliver free and fair elections. People have since learnt there are many other freedoms and rights that denied them although they are clearly state in the constitution because like all weak and feeble constitution the freedoms and rights are given in one sections and taken away in the next!

Obert Gutu is making a big song and dance about section 59 giving the right to demonstrate to impress the impressionable public but is silent about section(s) giving Mugabe the power to take away the same right like a scatter-brain mother hen chasing after an eagle that has snatched her chick. 

When I was a boy my mother had a scatter-brain hen that lost all her first brood of chicks to the eagle within a few days; she lost the second brood two or three weeks. Each time the eagle snatched one of her chicks the hens would flap her wings so vigorous and make a real racket chasing after the eagle!

On one occasion she went after the eagle as usual. She had not realized there were two eagles; the second eagle was swooping for her. She got away just in time!

The day the hen lost the last chick of her third brood it was the cooking pot for mizz scatter brain! 

“On Monday, January 4,2016 in Harare, the Police unlawfully blocked a protest march that was organised by the Rural Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe (RTUZ) to press government to urgently release civil servants' December salaries,” raved the irate mother hen, Obert Gutu. “The MDC unreservedly condemns the high - handed and unlawful action by the Police in violently crushing a peaceful demonstration.”

If you are as irate and sure of your legal standing on this; sue Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri and put an end to Zanu PF lawlessness once and once for all instead issue all these press statements full of sound and fury but signifying nothing!  

It is intolerable enough already that people are still being denied the basic freedoms and rights but all this charade of irate mother hen defiance by MDC officials is adding insult to injury. MDC wasted the nation’s golden opportunity to have a democratic constitution, five years and over $100 million writing this weak and feeble constitution which MDC officials like Obert Gutu still goes through the theatricals pretending it is worth the paper it is written on. 

Eddie Cross said SA denied MDC "assistance" to unseat Mugabe - damned lie! By WILBERT MUKORI

MP Eddie Cross as the nation’s political and economic crisis gets worse and worse the people of Zimbabwe will look back and ask themselves could this nightmare been avoided and, with time, they will know and understand the true cost of MDC’s failure to implement even one reform during the GNU.

If MDC had implemented the GPA reforms as expected of them then the July 2013 elections would have been free, fair and credible. Mugabe would not have rigged the elections and be in power today.

“We have struggled in the main opposition party, the MDC, to unseat the government through non-violent and democratic means but have not only been denied any significant external assistance in this struggle but faced the active opposition of many African states, including South Africa,” wrote Eddie Cross.

There are lies and then there are damned lies; Eddie Cross is telling us damned lies!

MDC was reminded many times throughout the GNU to implement the reforms by SADC and many others but MDC leaders paid no heed. Short of SADC drafting the proposed democratic reforms for MDC what assistance did Eddie Cross want from SADC or SA?

MDC failed to get not even one democratic reform implemented in five years of the GNU because Mugabe had bribes them with the gravy train lifestyles plus the $4 million Highlands mansion for Tsvangirai. MDC leaders “were too busy enjoying themselves during the GNU they forgot why they were there,” remarked SADC Heads of State is sheer frustration at MDC’s failure to implement even one reform.

MDC failed to unseat Mugabe in the July 2013 elections because they had sold-out, period.

As the cost of failing to unseat Mugabe begins to mount, soaring unemployment, increased poverty, starvation, etc.; the people will ask whether this could have been avoided. They will be disappointed to know Zimbabwe would be on a different economic and political trajectory if only MDC had implemented the reforms. The people’s disappointment will turn to anger to see the people who sold-out are still in denial and refuse to apologize! 

Ibbo Mandaza mourns "by stander" opposition in the spirit of one expecting blood from a stone!

"Opposition parties have largely become by-standers in the unfolding Zanu-PF factional and succession drama that is negatively impacting on the country and its economy,” observed Ibbo Mandaza, a political analyst and commentator.

The lack of quality in our so called expects has not helped us avoid this economic and political mess we now find ourselves in and, worse still, nor will it help us get out of the mess. Ibbo Mandaza said the “opposition parties have largely become by-standers” as if he really expected them to do something useful.

We are talking here of the MDC opposition which failed to get not even one democratic reform implemented in five years of the GNU. These are breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent men and women with no principles or sense of moral responsibility to anyone. For a seat on the gravy train and $ 4 million Highlands mansion for Tsvangirai they sold-out to Mugabe and kick reforms into the tall grass.

There are many, many lessons we as a nation should have learned in the last 36 years of relentless march from a nation full of hope and confidence in 1980 to the impoverished and disillusioned nation we are today. One of the many lessons we should have learnt is the critical importance of electing good leaders; like it or not this nation is not going anywhere until we learn this lesson.

“It pays in the end, to buy the best in the beginning!” ran the Eric Davies advert, a quality man’s wear shop in Harare and Bulawayo.

The price of electing poor leaders to the nation is even higher than the price the individual pays for buying a poor quality shirt from one of those “Tinopangana” shops.

In 2008, with the shops empty and the value of Z$ not even worth the paper it was printed on, Zimbabweans were desperate for democratic change they risked life and limp in 2008 to vote for Tsvangirai et al. Sadly they were so desperate they did not pay attention to the key issue of quality. Tsvangirai and his friends have since turned out to be breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent; they failed to bring about even one single change in their five years in the GNU.

To expect Tsvangirai at el to come up with anything remotely useful now or ever is to fail to see them for the breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent and sell-outs they are. One does not expect blood from a stone so why should one expect something useful or competent from a breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent person!

Zimbabweans have yet to take the business of electing competent leaders with the seriousness and urgency the matter demands because until we do, our 36 year march into the abyss will continue! By placing our hopes of getting out of this hell on corrupt and incompetent leaders like Tsvangirai and Joice Mujuru – expecting blood out of stone – shows we are not serious about getting out. 

Musewe says no to GPA reforms because they are "suicidal" for Mugabe - so million must continue to suffer and die!

Vince Musewe, you used to write wonderful pieces guided by one thing and one thing only the truth but ever since you took unto yourself the task of midwife to this Tsvangirai –Mujuru coalition you have written one rubbish article after another. Your latest article Zimbabweans not yet hungry enough for total freedom is no different. The choking chlorine gas fog that have been whirling in your head like Jupiter’s “red-eye” storm ever since you took up the midwife duties is making you see what is not there, come up with confused conclusions or worse.

“It was Thomas Jefferson who said that the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots,” you started Vince. What you have failed to understand is that Thomas Jefferson was sure America had planted a tree of liberty; we have planted a tree of tyranny and you want more innocent Zimbabwean blood to be shed to water corruption and tyranny.

Of course Zimbabweans are hungry for freedom, liberty, justice, good governance, human rights and dignity. Indeed, they are starving to death of hunger for freedom because their never ever tasted freedom let alone eaten their fill.

You want the people to join Tsvangirai’s street protest, risking life and limp; that will be “blood of patriots” and proof they are “hungry for total freedom”. What you forget is the people did risked all in the fight to end white colonial rule and thousands paid the ultimate price with their very lives – a historic fact many, especially Mugabe and his cronies, have actively down played.

By the time the nation attained her independence 18 April 1980 the people found much to their surprise and disgust that their right to free, fair and credible elections had been removed by Mugabe and his cronies. Over the years the tyrant has striped the people more and more their freedoms and rights including the right to life!

In his 35 years of tyrannical rule Mugabe has already murdered over 30 000 Zimbabweans whose only crime was that they dared to demand their freedoms and human rights including the right to a meaningful vote.

In 2008 the people of Zimbabwe mounted a concerted effort to end this Mugabe dictatorship by once again risking all to elect Tsvangirai and his MDC. MDC promised to bring democratic change. The price of getting MDC into the GNU was homes and livelihood destroyed, millions harassed, hundreds of thousands beaten and/or raped and over 500 murdered.

But once again the people were in for yet another disappointed; GNU failed to deliver free, fair and credible elections. This time it was Tsvangirai and his cronies who conspired to betrayed them. Mugabe bribed the MDC leaders the gravy train lifestyles, plus the $4 million Highlands Mansion for Tsvangirai in return for GNU ignoring SADC calls to implement the GPA reforms. Tsvangirai and friends accepted the bribes and not even one reform were implemented. Not one!

Whilst it is true that for the millions of ordinary Zimbabweans their lives are a hell lot worse now than it was under Ian Smith and so they will be even hungrier for freedom and for economic security and a share of the nation’s bounty. But after years of risking all for freedom and human rights and being betrayed by the very people who promised them freedom and change; it is wise to ignore those for more patriot blood to water the tree of liberty and check what tree the nation has planted.

We do not have a tree of liberty but rather a tree of tyranny. If there is to be any patriot blood to be shed then is must be in making sure we uproot the Zanu PF dictatorship tree and replace it with the democratic tree. The Zanu PF dictatorship is not confined to just elected public officials, the dictatorship has far reaching rhizomes in every state or public institution or façade of human activity forcing them all to abandon their set public good to serve the regime’s no-regime-change agenda at all cost.

The 2008 GPA has already established raft of democratic reforms that must be implemented to destroy the dictatorship. We do not need to reinvent the wheel, we demand the implementation of the 2008 GPA democratic reforms; this is the only fight worth the candle!

“Some of our brothers and sisters in the Diaspora continue to protest and demand political reforms from a regime which knows that it will be suicidal to do so,” argued Musewe. “Their calls for comprehensive reforms will never be heeded because ZANU (PF) knows that it is hugely unpopular especially amongst those who had to make the choice to leave the country. Allowing them to vote, for example, would sound their political death knell and they will do whatever it takes to make sure that Zimbabweans in the Diaspora do not vote. That is the truth.” 

There are Zimbabweans inside the country and outside who agree and differ on this issue like on many others issues. The false claim that no Zimbabwean in the country wants the reforms implemented is, of course, nonsense. The innuendo that we all defer to Zimbabweans inside the country because they know best must be dismissed with the contempt it rightly deserves.

The country is in fact in this mess because of the twisted Mugabe logic claiming that only those with liberation war credentials were competent to rule. So of the generation old enough to fight, all of the competent individuals went to war. And all the other generations have failed to produce anyone remotely competent. There is no doubt that it was Mugabe himself who coerced security sector chiefs to publicly say they would not salute anyone with no war credentials – a treasonous statement.

Now that it is clear Grace Mugabe is gunning for the presidency Mugabe is telling the war vets and security sector top brass alike that they are not special and must stop flaunting their liberation war credentials. So Grace has now acquired the mental intellect denied everyone else of her generation! This is no ordinary “bedroom coup”; there must be something more magical than Aladdin’s flying carpet about that bed!

To come back to the subject of reforms; our Mr Know-Best Musewe tells we should not demand the implementation of the GPA reforms because implementing the reforms will be “suicidal” for Mugabe. Good Lord, grant me patience!

So we must demand the implementation of the electoral laws (Tsvangirai’s National Electoral Reform Agenda) which will change nothing and keep the Mugabe dictatorship intact. We are to condemn millions of our people whom Mugabe has cheated and betrayed these last 35 years already by denying them their freedoms, human rights, dreams and hopes, to suffer and die in dumb anguish forever since implementing the GPA reforms will always be “suicidal” for Mugabe or his future successors. As for the ever worsening economic meltdown we are truly stuck with it because there will be no economic recovery without political reform.

Of course Mugabe would try his ruthless best and use every dirty trick there is to avoid implementing the 2008 GPA reforms but is to be expected of a tyrant. It was infinitely easier to implement the reforms during the GNU years because Mugabe had tied his own hands then by signing the GPA. Still the worsen economic situation and the dog-eat-dog situation in his own party has weaken Mugabe’s grip on power it is self-evident regime change is coming regardless of what Mugabe wants it or not!

Musewe wants the nation to forget demanding the tough 2008 GPA reforms in favour electoral law, NERA, knowing fully well whether or not they implementation will have no effect in stopping Zanu PF rigging the elections. Tsvangirai will take part in the next elections even if not even one electoral reform in implemented.

The only logical reason Tsvangirai continues to talk about NERA is having accepted that the last elections were rigged he has to be seen to be addressing that point. Besides NERA has now provided one issue round which to rally together other opposition.

This Mugabe is already failing to pay civil servant wages, Finance Minister Chinamasa’s kiya-kiya is not the way to run a business let alone a nation. Every soon Mugabe will be forced to start digging deep into what he and his cronies have been looting to prevent economic collapse.

In 2012 Partnership Africa Canada said Mugabe pocketed $2 billion from his share of the looting and plunder going on in Marange. The national budget from “kiya-kiya” Minister Chinamasa was $3.8 billion so Mugabe’s loot will pay 53% of the national budget. Even Mugabe will know this is not sustainable.

Musewe is pinning his hopes on his brainchild, the MDC-T and People First coalition, winning the next elections regardless all the inbuilt political defects in Mugabe’s favour. Musewe’s greatest selling point is that people should support his project for the sake of stopping Mugabe getting back into power and forget about dismantling the dictatorship, leave that for another day.

As long as the State President; whoever it happen to be, be it Mugabe, his wife, Mujuru or whoever;  has dictatorial powers to control state institutions and rig elections as is the case now, he/she will never want to give up those power. Whoever wins the next elections will be more interested in consolidating their own power by taking advantage of the existing dictatorial powers; they will not want to dilute those dictatorial powers by implementing the 2008 GPA reforms.

The people of Zimbabwe lost the golden opportunity of ending the Zanu PF dictatorship by implementing the GPA reforms during the GNU. We have another chance now with Mugabe being squeezed hard on the economic front by the worsening economic situation and on the political front from Zanu PF imploding. We can pile on the pressure by demanding the implementation of the GPA reforms.

Even if Mugabe was to rest implement the GPA reforms and was to go on and rig the next elections the economic pressure on him will only be even worse then because by then even his looting from Marange will no longer be enough to pay for everything! And if we maintain our demand for the implementation of all GPA reforms, it will not be long for him or his successor realise there is no way out.

We have been cheated of our freedom and our rights for the last 35 years. Last time is was Tsvangirai et al who sold-out to deny us our rights after we elected them into power on the promise they will delivery change. Musewe wants us to elect the same corrupt and incompetent Tsvangirai, Mujuru and their respective party into power in the hope that once in power they will give up the dictatorial powers still inherent in the system out of pity and love of us their follow men and implement all the GPA reforms! Believe that and you too, like Musewe, must have the Jupiter red-eye storm whirling in your empty head!

Tsvangirai says he wants Biti back; is he hoping to panic Mujuru just as he used Locadia to panic Elizabeth into marriage!

Speaking in an interview with the Daily News last week, the former prime minister in the government of national unity said his fallout with Biti and Mangoma was "based more on personal differences as opposed to ideology".

What is Mr Tsvangirai talking about! If they ever had any ideology and sense of where they were going then why did they fail to implement the democratic reforms during the GNU? They five years to do it and failed to get even one reform implemented.

All Tsvangirai, Mangoma, Biti and the other MDC leaders ever wanted was to get into power and milk the system for as much as they can and if that meant betraying the people who got them into power in the first place then so be it. If being corrupt, incompetent and selling-out are now the new hallmarks of chivalry and honour then God help us.

Since the rigged July 2013 elections, which saw many MDC members kicked off the gravy train, they have been fighting tooth and nail to get back on the gravy train. Sadly for them, some of the Zimbabwe electorate has woken up to the dangers of electing corrupt and incompetent leaders who sold-out during the GNU! They learnt an important lesson and one they are determined never to repeat.

"I don't bear grudges with anyone. Of course, there are colleagues who walked away citing grievances, but when it comes to the question of the people and their quests for change, freedom and a better life for all, you will find me very co-operative," said Tsvangirai.

In other words the reality of lost political credibility with the donors and now with the electorate is finally sinking in; Tsvangirai is so desperate to save his fast sinking political career he will willingly kiss and make up with Biti and Mangoma even as a last ditch attempt to save his career..

For the last twelve months Tsvangira has been courting Joice Mujuru to get her to join him into a political coalition. He is blowing reunion kisses to Biti and Mangoma to get Joice to panic and accept his hand just he did with Elizabeth.

The carefully stage managed traditional marriage to Locadia had Elizabeth fighting for him like two female pandas on heat and the window of opportunity is closing fast and he is the only male around!

Frankly Joice Mujuru is not such a prize catch; she “corrupt, incompetent and lazy” as Grace Mugabe said – Grace may well be wrong about everything she said about Mai Mujuru but on those three points, she was spot on. But Mujuru supporters will, no doubt, remind everyone that Tsvangirai is no prize catch neither since he too is corrupt and incompetent!

So this is the classic case of “Is your son so much to look at? The way he looks and the way she sees; it’s a perfect match!”

Both Tendai Biti and Elton Mangoma have done miserably ever since they broke away from Tsvangirai. The worst thing to happen to the two and all those foolish enough to follow them who had been lucky enough to get a parliamentary or senatorial seat; they all lost their seats.  Tendai Biti had assured then they would never lose their seats; “or my name is Morgan Mugabe” he had said. What a worthless guarantee that has turned out to be!

Tsvangirai had parliament recall the break group only to hand over all the elected seats to Zanu PF on a silver platter. It was better that Zanu PF had the seats than MDC Renewal that said volumes about how much Tsvangirai hated the breakaway group!

Biti’s attempt to heap all blame for MDC failure to get even one reform implemented on Tsvangirai did not cut much ice with the thinking electorate. The GNU lasted for five years enough time for any other MDC leaders to have done something to ensure the reforms were implemented if they really wanted. Indeed the reading public remembered that it was none other than Tendai Biti himself who had joined his MDC colleagues in praising Mugabe to the high heavens calling the corrupt and murderous tyrant the “unflappable father of the nation”!

Tendai Biti has tried to rescue his sinking political fortune by seeking a political marriage with former VP Joice Mujuru, more for her money than anything else. She let him, as with other suitors, know which is her favourite brand of Swiss chocolate; she has enjoyed the chocolates and said nothing on the marriage proposal. Her extended thinking-about time and expensive taste have left big holes in the People Democratic Party and its President, Tendai Biti’s shallow pockets!

So both signori Biti and Mangoma may well grab Tsvangirai’s offer of reunion in much the same way a drowning will clutch at straws or the hand of a follow drowning man. If you are going to sink into oblivion it is better doing so in company than alone!

Getting Biti and Mangona back in his big tent would be major scalp for Tsvangirai and that is why he will be following this public offer with private talks. For him this is the last throw of the dice; if the prospect of getting Biti in his tent does not panic Joice Mujuru into accepting his coalition offer then nothing else will! 

Nkulumane by-election exposes the folly of thinking there can be free and fair elections with GPA reforms.

“We failed to secure critical reforms before participating in the elections. The whole world advised us not to get into the elections without reforms, and so in everything that we have been saying we have failed to acknowledge that we also made a mistake,” confessed Samuel Sipape Nkomo soon after him, Tendai Biti and few others had broken away to form the MDC Renewal.

“The whole world?” asked the Zimbabwe Independent reporter, Hebert Moyo. “Who actually advised you against the elections?”

“It is common knowledge that Lindiwe Zulu (President Jacob Zuma’s international relations adviser) advised us. (President ) Zuma also advised us and even the Sadc Heads of State meeting in Maputo (Mozambique) also advised not to participate in the elections without electoral, media and security sector reforms, among others.”

We know MDC ignored the warnings and took part in the July 2013 elections which Mugabe went on to blatantly rig.

The recent Nkulumane by-election showed just how easy it is for the regime to rig elections and therefore how important it is that we heed the warning not to hold the next elections without first implementing the democratic reforms.

It should be noted that Nkulumane was considered an MDC strong hold and the seat was won by an MDC candidate in the July 2013 elections so the level of vote rigging dirty trickery in this constituency would have been significantly lower than in those areas Zanu PF had some support and then used multiple voting to increase it vote. Still the Nkulumane by-election uncovered some interesting points:

1)    ZEC released the voter roll 8 days before voting day. This still remains a burning issue; the voters roll from the last July 2013 elections has never been released although the law and common sense dictates it should have been realized at least a month before the elections.

Even the African Union (AU) Election Observer Team noted this serious irregularity in its report and recommended the authority must correct this. Clearly Zanu PF chosen to ignore the AU’s recommendation!

2)    The voters roll ZEC released was electronic with the data in different formats. There is no doubt that the data deliberately scramble to make it impossible to analysed.

Zanu PF paid NIKUV, an Israeli firm notorious for helping African tyrants rig elections, a princely sum of US$ 10 million run-up to the 2013 elections. One of NIKUV’s specialities is – you guessed it – scrambling voters roll data.

NIKUV has remained in Zimbabwe after the July 2013 rigged elections, no doubt for another princely retention fee, which the regime has religious paid on time. The regime can afford to mess around with failing to pay teachers, doctors, etc.’s wages; all performing very useful public services but has paid NIKUV’s “pound of flesh” for its disservice to the nation in corrupting the voters roll and thus making it easy for Mugabe to rig elections.  

3)    807 on the voters roll of 34 118 were migrants from Harare Urban Constituencies alone! Many voters failed to cast their vote on 31^st July 2013 because they name was not in the constituency they expected it to be. Local election observer estimated that nearly one million voters were affected out of over five million valid votes cast in that election. If the July 2013 voters roll was available it would be easy to see how many other voters on the Nkulumane voters roll migrated from other constituencies. The results would show that the local election observers’ nearly a million was very conservative.

Conclusion.

“Your opponents can have the all the votes you will still go on and “win” if all those counting the votes belong to you,” boasted one South American tyrant. Mugabe does not only own everyone in ZEC, Registrar General’s Office, have unfettered access to one of the world’s best voters roll scrambling companies, NIKUV (for a princely modern day thirty pieces of silver), he has the Police, CIO and all the other State Institution at his command. His command has been simple enough stop regime change at all cost.

Mugabe controls every aspect of the electoral process it is nonsense to think the country can have free, fair and credible election.

None of the 2008 GPA reforms were implemented during the GNU; Tsvangirai and his MDC friends were both stubborn and foolish to think the July 2013 elections would be free and fair with no reforms implemented. We must now demand the implementation of all the reforms and not make the same foolish mistake MDC made!