Thursday 22 March 2018

ZUNDE calls 'for massive voter turnout to ensure people's will' - what guarantee, if can whittle 73% to 47% N Garikai


The trouble with some people is the argue round and around in circles.

“ZUNDE respects the right of every Zimbabwean to make their own free choice. What we urge is a massive voter turnout to ensure that the true will of the people is unmistakably expressed,” you said.

We know that in 2008 the people voted in drove for MDC giving Tsvangirai a massive 73% of the vote in the March vote. Joint Operations Command, the Zanu PF Junta that has ruled the country with an iron fist for decades led by Robert Mugabe, at the time, assisted by Emmerson Mnangagwa order a recount of the votes which lasted six weeks. At the end, Tsvangirai’s 73% had been whittled down to 47%, forcing a run-off. In the run-off the Junta used wanton violence to boost Mugabe’s vote from less than 27% to a massive 84%.

Even ZUNDE must accept that the March vote repressed the true will of the people but it was ruthlessly disregarded and what followed is an insult to the people.

SADC leaders who set in after the barbarism of 2008 have suggested that Zimbabwe must implement a raft of democratic reforms to ensure the 2008 madness is never repeated ever again. Sadly, not even one reform was implemented by the GNU partners tasked to do this. SADC leaders have since advised that Zimbabweans should not take part in any elections without first implementing the reforms.

“If you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done,” SADC leaders warned Morgan Tsvangirai and the other MDC leaders in June 2013 at the regional summit meeting in Maputo, Mozambique.

Sadly, MDC leaders paid no heed, once again, and the elections went ahead, and Zanu PF blatantly rigged those elections.

We all know that not even one reform was implemented since the July 2013 elections and therefore SADC leaders’ advice is even more relevant and poignant this year given the nation gained nothing from taking party in an election process so flawed the result was known before the first ballot was cast!

So, we have two camps here; those who believe that with no democratic reforms, the “elections are done” and therefore it is pointless taking any part in the flawed process. Indeed, taking any part will only give the flawed and illegal electoral process credibility.

Then there are those in the second camp who are saying people must take part in the elections, “a massive voter turnout to ensure that the true will of the people,” ZUNDE said. Perhaps ZUNDE knows something that some of us do not know; in the interest of democratic debate and accountability, please answer the following questions:

a)     Does ZUNDE want the people to take part in these elections because the party is convinced all the reforms have/ will be implemented to make process in free, fair and credible and the result will be a true expression of the people?

b)     Does ZUNDE want the people to take part in these elections because the party is convinced the electoral process in free, fair and credible and the result will be a true expression of the people, regardless of whether the reforms are implemented or not?

c)     Does ZUNDE want the people to take part in these elections because the party is convinced the true democratic will of the people will prevail regardless of all the Zanu PF vote rigging shenanigans coming from the failure to implement the reforms? In other words, ZUNDE believes in “Winning In Rigged Elections (WIRE) strategies,” as former MDC-T spokesperson so aptly put it.

The nation is not asking for detailed answers to any of the above questions as we would not want to steal ZUNDE’s thunder. Surely, you cannot expect the people to go out and vote in droves on the basis of a two-sentence appeal especially in a country that has failed to hold free, fair and credible elections in 38 years!  

Massive voter turnout alone is no guarantee the result be the democratic will of the people; not unless the process is free, fair and credible. After 2008, we stop burying our heads in the sand and acknowledge the political reality Zanu PF’s vote rigging capacity is unparalleled. It is insane to believe one can still win an election when 73% is not good enough to do so!

6 comments:

  1. Mnangagwa tell tales of 2008 election result

    If Tsvangirai had won 47% after the first count then why did it take six weeks to recount and announce the same result?

    Both Mugabe and Mujuru acknowledge that there was operation "bhora mushango" (kick the ball into the bush) by Mujuru supporters in which they voted for Zanu PF MP but Tsvangirai instead of Mugabe. The difference of 4% can never justify the difference especially when the difference between the MPs numbers was 100 for MDC to 99 for Zanu PF!

    There is no point in asking Mnangagwa why was it necessary to unleash the wanton violence that followed the run-off. He has already said there was no violence. "Where is the evidence of the violence?" he asked the UK Economist Magazine!

    There is a lot more to the 2008 election story that Mnangagwa has not said just as there is a lot to the Gukurahundi story that he has not said. The man is a thug and not fit to hold the office of president!

    Now that Didymus Mutasa and many others knows he has nothing to lose, they may tell the world the true result of the March 2008 elections - just days before voting day so people know what kind of criminal they will be voting for!

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  2. I would agree with you that the list is not complete because it does not have known Lacoste members on it. I disagree that Mai Mujuru should not be on the list, she is certainly one of the Zanu PF chefs who have been looting!

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  3. @ Solomon If we are talking about Zimbabwe elections then it is impossible not to mention the reality that Zanu PF will rig the vote as the party has done so countless times in the last 38 years.

    We had the golden opportunity to stop Zanu PF rigging elections and all MDC leaders had to do was implement the reforms. They had five years to do this but still failed to get even one reform implemented. These are historic facts, there are not you want said about MDC but I am not going to falsify historic facts to please you.

    What is more, Zimbabwe is desperate to get out of the political and economic hell-hole we are in and the solution is not taking part in yet another flawed electoral process as MDC is suggesting. The solution is standing firm and demand the implementation of the democratic reforms BEFORE the elections. You do not want MDC's solution criticised, I can see that, but making sure the nation makes the right decision is far more important to me than hurting your misplace ego!

    MDC sold-out in failing to implement the reforms during the GNU and the party is selling-out yet again in asking the nation to go into these election with no reforms. If you think my analysis is wrong then tell me otherwise, grow up and learn to respect facts, reason and logic!

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  4. I will bet anything you want that ZUNDE will never come out and categorically state why; after all that happened in 2008, MDC's failure to implement reforms during the GNU and Zanu PF's stubborn refusal to do the same since; they still maintain that taking part in the elections is still the right thing to do. Whilst ZUNDE have been very focused and articulate in many areas, sadly the party has been blundering from pillar to post on what the GNU was about and how to move the nation out of this hell-hole.

    The fog of confusion in ZUNDE drifted in when the party would not publicly acknowledge that MDC leaders sold-out during the GNU. ZUNDE members were desperate to join the big tent coalition of opposition parties and it was not politically expedient to call the would-be coalition partners selling-outs.

    In fact, accepting that MDC had sold-out during the GNU was the key to redeeming MDC itself. The refusal to accept the fundamental point that MDC sold-out on reforms played a part in the party's decision to contest the July 2013 contrary to SADC's advice and the growing evidence that Zanu PF was rigging that election.

    Chamisa, Ncube, Biti and all the other big-wigs in MDC will not to this day accept they sold-out and hence the reasons they keep coming up with wishy-washy reforms which they are always careful not to spell out because they do so will lead straight back to the 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA) reforms. If they accept the GPA reforms they will have no choice but to accept that it was their fault not even one reform was implemented.

    MDC have become hostages to their denial they sold-out by failing to implement the reforms during the GNU. By the same token ZUNDE have become hostages of their refusal to accept MDC sold out. MDC want to take part in these flawed and illegal elections and ZUNDE, their acolyte, have to cheer along! Do not ask either MDC or ZUNDE why they are participating in elections that are "done" months before the first ballot is even cast; they have no clue why!

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  5. @ Nkosana Malinga

    Joseph Stalin once said, "The most important person is not the one who vote but it's the one who counts those votes".

    Well Mugabe showed Zimbabweans, the Russians and the world at large that he had learned that lesson from Stalin very well when he was able to get ZEC to recount the March 2008 vote and whittled down Tsvangirai's 73% to 47% thus forcing the run-off. It took ZEC six weeks to recount 3.5 million ballots but that only served to underline just how important those doing the counting real are!

    SADC stepped in the Zimbabwe political crisis following the blatant cheating and wanton violence that marred the 2008 elections. The regional block advised that the nation to implement a raft of democratic reforms designed to stop a repeat of the barbarism of 2008. We failed to get even one reform implemented.

    SADC leaders have advised that we should not take part in any elections without first implemented the reforms and it is none other than the MDC leaders, who sold-out on the reforms during the GNU, who are leading from the front telling people they must take part in the elections regardless of President Mnangagwa's refusal to implement reforms.

    "This is the situation with Zimbabwe today. MDC and Chamisa may have numbers but as long as people like Silaigwana remains at ZEC it is a non-starter," you said.


    You have hit the nail on the head, right there! Chamisa, Ncube, Biti and the rest of the MDC big-wigs, the same individuals who sold-out on reforms, are out leading from the front, asking people to take part in a flawed and illegal process every knows is being rigged.

    Participating in the 2013 elections accomplished nothing other than give the flawed process credibility. And we are lining up once again to do the same foolish thing again! We have the democratic right to make complete fools of ourselves and this is the one right Zanu PF has gone to town to make sure we all enjoy it with no interference!

    "Hupenzi inyama yegakava!" (Stubborn refusal to listen to sound advice is what makes fools, fools!) as we say in Shona.

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  6. @ Moyondizvo

    "Hauna nyaya. Nyarara machewe. You always say Democratic Reforms without stating the actual reforms required in detail. Uri fake shaha," you say.

    I have certain answered you concerns in great detail on numerous occasions in the past and you can read the relevant articles on this site's archive or go to zsdemocrats.blogspot.

    To understand what the democratic reforms are about, let us start with the 2008 elections. Would you agree with me that those elections were not free, fair and credible? Zanu PF blatantly cheated by ordering a recount of the March vote resulting in Tsvangirai's 73% being whittled down to 47% to force the run-off. During the run-off the party they use wanton violence to harass, beat, rape and even kill innocent Zimbabwe for the sole purpose of punishing them for having rejected Zanu PF in the earlier vote and forcing them to vote for the tyrant in the run-off.

    Not even SADC and AU election observers, known for turning a blind eye to dodgy election processes, would accept Zimbabwe's 2008 elections were free, fair and credible. The West condemned the elections and so did many other nations. Not even Mugabe's usual allies, China and Russia, had the guts to pretend the elections were free and fair; but instead of condemning they kept a stony silence on the matter.

    The bottom line is with not even one nation prepared to endorse the 2008 elections result as democratic wish of the people of Zimbabwe Mugabe and Zanu PF lost political legitimacy. SADC leaders offer Mugabe a way out; accept the terms of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) with said Zanu PF must accept the formation of a Government of National Unity (GNU) composed of Zanu PF plus the two MDC factions. The GNU's primary task was to implement a raft of democratic reforms necessary to ensure the cheating and violence of 2008 will never ever be repeated.

    So, the reforms are anything done to stop the cheating and the violence. Take violence for example, we all know Zanu PF thugs are behind the violence and the Police, the statutory body who should be investigating and arresting the thugs have done nothing because Zanu PF has punished Police Officers who arrested its party members for violence. Indeed, this have become so bad that serving Police Officers are often involved themselves in the political thuggery on the Zanu PF side.

    The democratic reforms the GNU was expected to implement would have included changing the law to end the State President's power and control of the Police. Reforms to allow parliament to have the power to question the Police's performance and oversight on the hiring and firing of senior Police officers.

    Similar reforms were required for ZEC, Public media, Army, etc., etc.

    Sadly, at the end of the GNU not even one reform was implemented. Not one. Who was to blame for it, MDC leaders and this is why.

    Zanu PF and the two MDC factions signed on to the GPA and so did SADC, as the guarantor. When it implementing the democratic reforms it is obvious Zanu PF would not want any reforms implemented, after all they would be dismantling the dictatorship they had built and they needed to stay in power. So the task of implementing the reforms fell on MDC leaders' lap.

    The clever thing Mugabe did was to bribe the MDC leaders with the trappings of high office and they forgot about the reforms.

    Implementing the democratic reforms and holding free and fair elections is the key without which we will never get out of the hell-hole Zanu PF landed us in and MDC have helped keep us prisoners by selling-out on reforms.

    As I have said above, go to zsdemocrats.blogspot and you will find more details.

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