“We are headed for a “smart election”, not free and fair in the
conventional sense but one which will be controlled and directed by the same
team that won the 2013 elections. Its outcome is being predicted with total
certainty as being a two-horse race with Emmerson Mnangagwa the clear winner,
Nelson Chamisa a close second and the also ran’s miles behind,” you said.
You are spot on! It is hard to see how these coming elections
can be anything else other than being rigged, since the regime has pointedly
refused to implement even one democratic reform.
“But I think they will be able to claim after the election that
the “people have spoken”. The fact that they had their hands tied behind their
backs, were subjected to a constant steam of propaganda and their basic needs
delivered on a “command basis” by the military in mufti, will be very difficult
to see and the international Community will begin to recognise the new regime
once it takes over,” you continued.
Well you are wrong there. The international community knows that
it is IMPOSSIBLE for Zimbabwe to hold free, fair and credible elections without
a free media, verified voters’ roll, a fair and transparent party funding system,
etc. The Americans have just been in Zimbabwe to spell out these requirements.
At one time it looked like the British were going to turn a
blind eye to yet another rigged elections. They too have since changed their
mind and are demanding free and fair elections.
“July’s election will be a bellwether for the direction of a new
Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwe Government must deliver the free and fair elections the
people of Zimbabwe deserve and which it has promised. The UK stands ready in
friendship to support a Zimbabwe that fully embraces the rule of law‚ human
rights and economic reform‚” UK Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, told Foreign
Affairs Minister S B Moyo last week.
SADC leaders turned a blind eye to Zanu PF vote rigging in 2013
and look where it got the country! The economic meltdown got worse and to crown
it all we had the coup in November last year. The same will happen again this
time, if the world was to allow President Mnangagwa to get away with rigging
this year’s elections.
“Zimbabwe cannot be “open for business” unless we take the rule
of law seriously and imprint on everyone’s mind the principles and values
embedded in our Constitution. If the Constitution is the supreme law, then so
be it – without exception, and the games that this Government has played with
the Constitution – treating it as if it was “just another piece of paper”, must
stop,” said MP Cross.
If there is anything that exemplifies this government’s contemptuous
disregard of the law it is the failure to hold free, fair and credible
elections. And of all people, investors, will take note of that and away. A
nation that has no respect of the law is NOT ready to do business.
SADC leaders will be very foolish to let Zanu PF get away with
another rigged elections; they allowed that to happen in 2013 and the regime
repaid them with the November 2017 coup. The next coup may well throw the whole
region into chaos!
It is a great pity that the ordinary people are helpless to stop
the holding these flawed and illegal elections, a waste of time and treasure, since
both Zanu PF and the opposition are determined to see them go ahead. All the
former want is to retain the party’s iron grip on power and all the later want
is the few gravy train seats Zanu PF gives away as bait. Both do not give a
damn that the process denies the ordinary people a meaningful say in the
governance of the country and the tragic economic and human consequences of
decades of corrupt and tyrannical rule.
What the people are able to do is demand that these elections
must be declared null and void and force the nation to revisit and implement
the democratic reforms MP Cross and his MDC friends were tasked to implement
during the GNU but failed to. We need to finally put an end to this cycle of
flawed elections and corrupt government that is behind Zimbabwe’s economic
meltdown, poverty and human misery!
Even if President Mnangagwa was to fool the international
election observers into accepting these flawed elections because they failed to
uncover evidence of vote rigging. The regime will not fool the investors who
will not invest in a lawless country, thus confirming that “Zimbabwe is NOT
open for business,” as you, MP Cross rightly pointed out. What, then, will be
the justification of calling the flawed elections “smart elections”?
Yes, of course, President Mnangagwa and his junta would like to see Zimbabwe's economy back on track again. ED's clarion call "Zimbabwe is open for business!" is born out of the realisation of Zimbabwe's sorry economic situation. Make no mistake about it; the regime will be very pleased if the call had started to yield results and investors were flooding in; much as Robert Mugabe himself would have been very pleased if his "Gutsva ruzhinji!" (Mass prosperity!) clarion call soon after independence had delivered mass prosperity and not mass poverty.
ReplyDeleteEconomic recovery is therefore an aspirational bonus, at best, more like a cynical decoy, for Emmerson Mnangagwa and the junta just as economic prosperity was in Robert Mugabe's days. Zimbabwe is open for business as long as that does not mean Zanu PF giving up one inch of its dictatorial powers.
In other words he wants to assure his junta friends that their iron grip on power will remain untouched, on the one hand. On the other hand, he wants the investors to believe they can invest in a Zimbabwe still ruled by thugs! Naturally, the investors are refusing to buy that nonsense. It is no surprise that Mnangagwa has, from day one, done nothing to implement the democratic reforms necessary for free and fair elections; his top priority is making sure the junta's iron grip on power is not compromised.
MP Eddie Cross is right in that ED is holding very smart elections in that he is rigging these elections and doing everything in his power to hide the evidence of blatant rigging. He is also pulling all the stop to give the ordinary Zimbabweans the impression that his "Zimbabwe is open for business!" call has attracted massive positive response. He has even talking of US$ 11 billion investment in the pipeline. The one group he has completely failed to deceive is the investors themselves.
There is a limit to how long one can deceive people with a mirage, President Mnangagwa and his junta are running out of time! With each passing day and week more and more international observers and ordinary Zimbabweans are waking up to the realisation that Zanu PF has not changed, the coup changed nothing other than the top leader of the dictatorship. Zanu PF is rigging the elections just as it has rigged past elections and they are being conned to rubber stamp the flawed process. SAY NO TO FLAWED ELECTIONS!
@ Gutuza
ReplyDelete"One thing you should know about investors is that they need very minimum requirements to bring in their capital. They are concerned about political stability only to an extent. ED is smart enough to provide those minimum requirements all things considered bearing in mind where we are coming from. Wishful thinking is healthy to some extent, do not confuse it with reality. ED is not suicidal, he would not shoot himself in the foot by succumbing to opposition whims," you say.
You can continue to bury your head in the sand, the real world with real investors is not what you are painting here.
1) Of course, investors care about political stability. If the November coup brought in Mnangagwa who scrapped the indigenisation law and many other obnoxious laws who is to say the next coup will bring back Grace Mugabe and the obnoxious laws again?
2) The only reason ED and the junta are refusing to implement the democratic reforms and hold free and fair elections is because the coup was about them reclaiming the dictatorial powers from Mugabe and not ending the dictatorship which is what the nation has been demanding. The junta is trying to deceive the people by claiming the dictatorship is dead when in reality all they have done is remove the old dictator and a few G40 elements around him!
3) The demand for the restoration of the individual freedoms and human rights including the right to free and fair elections are not "opposition whims" these are legitimate demands of every free citizen and the key to end the country's tragic human suffering brought about by the 38 years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship.
4) Yes, Mnangagwa and his junta have shot themselves in the foot by thinking they could rig these elections and stay in power as they have done countless times in the last 38 years. They have promised to hold free, fair and credible elections and now they must deliver. There is no getting away with another rigged elections, not this time!
Noble Ngara
ReplyDelete"Gabbage! Time to empty recycle bin---if talkers were running this country, Bob would be a demi-god. Thank God we have some hands on hands on deck!" you say.
Well Bob did run the nation for 37 years and many of the idiots in this junta were not only sitting next to the tyrant but are the ones who rigged elections and even staged the 2008 palace coup to stop MDC taking over power. What does that say about these "hands on hands on deck"!