It is easy to see why Morgan Tsvangirai and his
MDC friends failed to implement even one democratic reforms designed to stop
Zanu PF rigging the elections; it is, either, Zimbabwe’s opposition politicians
do not believe in the reforms. Or they are so scared of Zanu PF thugs they will
do anything just to avoid confronting the thugs.
“If the next elections are indeed going to be
free, fair, credible and transparent as we have been told, there is a very good
chance that there will not be an outright winner, at least in the first round,”
wrote ZUNDE Secretary General in Zimeye. Chamboko is one of the country’s leading
opposition leaders and intellectuals.
“While electoral irregularities have been
raised in the past, the fact of the matter is that ZANU PF has a solid
membership base of people who will vote for them no matter what happens. This
number is estimated to be not less than one million and it is a reality that
cannot be ignored.”
There is no need to be so coy, Mr Chamboko; who
told you the the elections are going to be free and fair? What it ED or
Chamisa?
If it is ED; he does not know what constitute free
and fair elections. He insisted the 2008 elections were free and fair. “Give us
the evidence of vote rigging,” he demanded of the Economist reporter. The
reporter let him off the hook because there is a mountain of evidence.
Nelson Chamisa has been wittering about having “stringent
measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the vote!” Every intellectual worth his/her
salt knows that is just a blast of hot air.
SADC leaders spelt out the raft of democratic
reform Zimbabwe needed to implement to stop Zanu PF rigging elections as
happened in the 2008 elections. Chamisa and his MDC friends failed to get even
one reform implemented in five years of the GNU. Not even one!
SADC leaders wanted the 2013 elections
postponed to allow the democratic reforms to be implemented. “If you go into
the elections next month you will lose: the elections are done,” they warned
MDC leaders. But once again MDC leaders would not listen.
The nation is going into another election cycle
still with not even one reform implemented since the last elections. Of course,
these elections too “are done”! People like Mr Chamboko and army of others
opposition members are determined that the elections must, once again, go
ahead. They are disregarding SADC leaders’ advice, disregarding their own “No
reform, no elections!” party resolutions and ignoring all the evidence of Zanu
PF rigging taking place already.
They never run out of feeble excuses why the
elections must go ahead; someone (no named supplied) told Mr Chamboko that the elections
will be free and fair, is his latest feeble excuse!
Mr Chamboko is telling us that Zanu PF has a one
million solid membership base. So, what happened to all these supporters in
2008 when Tsvangirai polled 73% of the 3.5 votes cast in the March vote?
Mugabe has always claimed that he was loved by
the people and yet on 18 November last year hundreds of thousands of ordinary
Zimbabweans came out to demand he resigned. In country now used to hired crowd
by both Zanu PF and the opposition, that was really impressive because no one
was bussed in that day!
If we were to implement all the democratic
reforms, free the nation from the stifling oppression of this corrupt and
tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship; the current crop of recycled Zanu PF deadwood
would be blown out of the water with the competition.
Each time President Mnangagwa has dared to venture
out of his comfort zone of ZBC TV’s Ruben Barwe’s type interviews; he has been
made to sweat under that rainbow scarf. The man has so much dirty on him, a
free media would have a field day. After a hard-hitting interview on such
programmes as BBC’s HardTalk, whatever little support Mnangagwa still has would
disappear like mist in the hot African sun!
@ Mavaza
ReplyDelete"Make sure you're civically engaged and you vote for people that you want. Change doesn't happen overnight. Change starts with you," You say.
We have been over this ground millions of times. If there is an Zimbabwean who still believes this nonsense then he/she is beyond the pale! Reason and logic cannot touch them.
Zimbabwe is in this economic and political mess because for the last 38 years the nation has been stuck with an incompetent, corrupt and ruthlessly tyrannical regime that rigged elections to stay in power.
Emmerson Mnangagwa, General Chiwenga, Minister Perence Shiri and all the other November 2017 coup members are the individuals who have masterminded and ruthlessly executed all the vote rigging and political intimidation and violence including mass murderers and even staged the 2008 military coup to stop Tsvangirai getting into State House. Proof they do not and have never ever believed in giving the people of Zimbabwe the free vote to elect who they want.
Mnangagwa and his junta deposed Mugabe in yet another coup last November not because the tyrant was going to boot them out of the dictatorship and not because they wanted to restore the people's freedoms and rights. Mnangagwa has flatly refused to implement even one reform to ensure free and fair elections. He has already paid off the Chiefs with the twin cab trucks to start harassing and intimidation rural folk. Retired Major Engelbert Rugeje, war veterans and army personal are also out intimidating voters.
Zanu PF is rigging these elections just as the party has rigged past elections.
The only logical response is to denounce the flawed process here and now and demand the elections to be declared null and void. Those who participate are giving the flawed process legitimacy!
The November coup was about restoring dictatorial powers back into the hands of Mnangagwa and the Joint Operation Command, the shadowy junta that has ruled the country. It was not about restoring the people's freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful vote; for that we must dismantle the dictatorship itself by implementing the reforms. This is why we must reject elections without first implementing the reforms!
@ Tedious Ncube
ReplyDeleteTo refuse to implement the democratic reforms to ensure free and fair elections on the grounds that there are sanctions is one of the most irrational arguments this regime has ever put forward. Why should ordinary Zimbabweans out there be denied their basic freedoms and rights because of what some foreign nation has done?
It is a great pity that even now, with all the mountain of evidence that Zanu PF has retained all its dictatorial powers to rig the elections and is doing exactly that, there are some people still talking of free, fair and credible elections! As SADC leaders have already pointed out, it is futile taking part in an election that is "done"!
ReplyDeleteOne can only hope that the international community and SADC will ignore the foolishness of Zimbabwe's opposition politicians who are dragging the nation into these flawed elections time and time again for the sake of the few gravy train seats Zanu PF gives away. The international community must act decisively this time and rule the flawed process null and void and put an end to this madness that has brought so much suffering and death to innocent Zimbabweans.
If Zanu PF is allowed to get away with yet another rigged election, then those responsible must ask themselves what kind of regime change will the country have next time? Last November's coup was not bloody, but the next one may well be very bloody!
MDC had the golden opportunity to implement all the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging elections during the GNU. They failed to get even one reform implemented in five years. Chamisa was one of the MDC cabinet members in the GNU.
ReplyDeleteEven if Chamisa manages to get Mnangagwa concede on the sourcing of ballot papers, Zanu PF will still have 1001 other ways to rig the vote! It is clear that we will not have a verified voters' roll before the elections, we have known this from the very late start of the voter registration exercise; NIKUV has had all this time to device its vote rigging schemes to take full advantage of this.
SADC leaders have advised that there should be no election without first implementing the reforms. "If you go into the elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done," they warned Tsvangirai and company before the 2013 elections.
Chamisa has dragged the nation into these flawed elections claiming he has "devised stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging elections!" Is getting Zanu PF to concede on the ballot papers the sum total of his stringent measures?
The people of Zimbabwe must wise up and finally see politicians like Chamisa for the incompetent, corrupt and sell-out they are. MDC does not represent the interest of the ordinary people, the sold-out on that during the GNU.
"We demand clean ballot paper!" Will that stop the hundreds of thousands rural people being frog marched to vote for Zanu PF by the Chiefs, Rugeje, war veterans and soldiers? No! Will that stop Zanu PF youths being bussed from one polling station to the next casting multiple votes? No!
These elections are done and we, the people must say it here and now and loud that we refuse to have anything to do with this madness. These elections must be declared null and void, an interim administration appointed to implement the reforms and fresh free, fair and credible elections held! Enough of this MDC nonsense.
"There was nothing that could have stopped him since he was in charge of the army. General Chiwenga is a person who is politically mature and with the people and country at heart. Due to political orientation, he understood that hove huru dzinofamba nemurongwa (leadership renewal follows laid down procedures)," said Perence Shiri.
ReplyDeleteWhat is Shiri wittering about! Chiwenga has played his role in the Joint Operation Command, the shadowy junta that has carried out all the vote rigging and the political violence including mass murders that have kept Mugabe and Zanu PF in power all these 38 years. He has had his lion's share of the wholesale looting that has followed. Where is his "political maturity and having the people and country's interests at heart" in imposing a corrupt and murderous dictatorship on the nation.
The November coup was about restoring power back to the junta and no one held the gun to Chiwenga or Shiri's head to force them to accept the VP and ministerial appointments! Shiri, the world was not fooled by all that military assisted transition nonsense and so you can stop dishing out more of this nonsense.
@ gonye
ReplyDeleteZanu PF leaders are drinking a toast to Nelson Chamisa just as they did to Morgan Tsvangirai during the GNU. Chamisa is not threatening Zanu PF's hold on power by demanding the implementation of the reforms and by ploughing on heedless of the reality of Zanu PF rigging the elections he is giving the process the much needed credibility!
I would not be surprised to hear that there has been a mystrious donor bankrolling MDC Alliance's elections campaign. Instead of the $2 million spending money, the Alliance will have double or triple that now! Having MDC as the opposition is the best thing that has ever happened to Zanu PF in the last 20 years and Zanu PF will do everything in its power to make sure Chamisa and his incompetent and corrpt MDC friends retain their coveted position as the country's main opposition leaders!
The ordinary Zimbabweans has gained nothing from these rigged elections but not so with the few opposition politicians who have won the few gravy train seats given away as bait. There are over 100 political parties fighting for these few seats; Chamisa has some serious competition and he knows ED will give him a helping hand if he played his cards right - as MDC did during the GNU. And so far Chamisa has not put one foot wrong, his Zanu PF handlers are in for a promotion in their own right!