Sunday 6 May 2018

"Elections will be free and fair," insist Mnangagwa - with no reforms, let observers be the judges N Garikai


“President Emmerson Mnangagwa has reiterated his promise to deliver a free and fair election and is confident of winning the looming elections despite the rigging allegations and incidents of violence in the just ended party primaries,” reported Bulawayo 24.


“Mnangagwa took it to micro blogging Tweeter saying, "The upcoming elections will be free and fair, and l am confident that with this ambitious and achievable plan for Zimbabwe, we will be victorious. The voice of people is the voice of God!"

Considering that President Mnangagwa has stubbornly refused to implement even one democratic reform one has to question his sincerity in his insistence these elections are going to be free, fair and credible. He has certainly known about the democratic reforms since Zanu PF was forced to sign the 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA) following that year’s landmark elections.

The elections were noted for the blatant vote count cheating followed by wanton violence, the rigging was so bad that not even SADC and AU, known for turning a blind eye to questionable election processes, would pretend these were free and fair elections. It was SADC that proposed the implementation of a raft of democratic reforms, designed to stop Zanu PF rigging future elections and a repeat of the 2008 fiasco.

When the Zimbabwe political players failed to get even one democratic reform implemented in the five years of the GNU, SADC did not hesitate for a moment in calling the 2013 elections to be postponed until the reforms were implemented.

“If you go into next month’s election, you will lose; the elections are done!” SADC leaders warned Morgan Tsvangirai and his fellow MDC leaders.

There tell-tale signs of vote rigging signs that SADC leaders had seen before the 2013 elections are there today too, since no reforms have been implemented since the rigged 2013 elections. Zanu PF has once again deployed the war veterans, Chiefs and security services personal to intimidate the voters as it did in 2008 and 2013. There is no free public media. Zanu PF is spending millions of dollars in its vote buying and other vote rigging schemes; all counted, it is set to spend as much as $4 billion compared to $2 million, at most, by the opposition.

It is already a foregone conclusion that ZEC will NOT produce a verified voters’ roll this year. There was no verified voters’ roll and it opened the door to manner blatant vote rigging activities, as one can well imagine.

It is no exaggeration, to say these elections are done!

So, President Mnangagwa’s continued insistence that these elections are going to be free, fair and credible when there is already glaring evidence to the contrary can only mean one of the following:

1)     Either President Mnangagwa has no clue what constitute free, fair and credible elections and so has never seen anything wrong with the way Zanu PF conducted the 2008 elections. He has never understood why the country needed to implement the democratic reforms and hence the reason why he has dismissed all those calling for reforms with contempt.

2)     Or else he knows what constitutes free and fair elections, after all it is common sense, but does not care. All he and his junta regime care about is that Zanu PF must retain absolute power at all cost.

As one of the ordinary Zimbabwean who has been systematically denied their freedoms and basic human rights including the right to free and fair elections; I am pleased that the international community will be in the country to observe this year’s elections. What every thinking Zimbabwean will be asking the observers to do is judge whether these elections are indeed free and fair.

“The voice of people is the voice of God!" True but first the elections must free, fair and credible and unscrupulous so! We must allow the international election observers to be the judge of that!

5 comments:

  1. Well during the GNU, Chamisa and his MDC friends had the immediate task of implementing the democratic reforms which would have stopped Zanu PF rigging elections. They had five years to do this but failed to get even one reform implemented. We should not be holding these flawed elections without first implementing the reforms; it beggars belief why MDC are dragging us into these elections!

    If Chamisa cannot be trusted to do the most basic things then how can the nation trust him to lead them for five years!

    MDC's breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent leaders are the ones helping Zanu PF stay in power. The need for a competent opposition is now glaringly obvious, more so now than ever. These elections are a total waste of time and more one hopes that the international observers will do the right thing and declare the whole charade null and void.

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  2. "Mnangagwa embraces surprising freedoms!" said Source.

    You have said nothing about ED refusing to implement even one democratic reform. Mnangagwa knows exactly what the nation needs to have free and fair elections because he is the one who has been Mugabe's henchman when it comes to rigging the elections. Anyone who thinks ED has changed is as naive as a goat that assumes the crocodile has gone away just because it cannot see the reptile!

    Zimbabwe is in this mess because, alas we have too many goats in Zimbabwe!

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  3. SADC leaders dismissed the 2013 elections "as done" in June and yet they still went on to accept the result even though it was clear ZAnu PF rigged the vote! Whilst I agree with those who have said that SADC leaders had no choice in the matter since MDC had rejected their advice and there were no other political players worth working with. Still, SADC leaders should have listened to President Ian Khama, of Botswana, who wanted the elections condemned.

    Given the economic meltdown and political chaos as Zanu PF started to fall apart ending in last November's military coup that followed the 2013 rigged elections; SADC leaders must have regretted that they had not listened to President Khama. The political situation in Zimbabwe will remain highly volatile until there are free, fair and credible elections. One can only hope that SADC leaders will do the right thing this time and judge these flawed and illegal elections null and void.

    To keep judging these flawed elections acceptable just because the is no competent opposition to take over from Zanu PF, is to miss the point completely. Zanu PF has poisoned Zimbabwe's political environment so much so that no quality leaders can ever emerge from either side of the political divide - which is exactly what Zanu PF thugs want.

    To accept another rigged election because there is not alternative is to reward Zanu PF for creating the Zanu PF dictatorship and to help perpetuate it at the long suffering ordinary Zimbabweans' expense!

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  4. Mr President, you have stubbornly refused to implement even one reform to make sure we have free, fair and credible elections. These elections are therefore NOT going to be free and fair.

    "We are now in a New Dispensation under the leadership of Zanu-PF, where the focus and preoccupation of the new administration is opening up the country for business, fighting corruption, creating jobs, modernising the public sector and promoting investment, economic empowerment and re-aligning to an investor friendly trajectory that leads to economic growth and job creation," you say.

    What "new dispensation" are you wittering about! Foreign investors are a shrewd lot and they are not going to be fooled by you rather foolish and amateurish play at words. The November coup was about the transfer of power from Robert Mugabe to the Lacoste faction of the party, it did not change the nature of Zanu PF as a party of ruthless thugs. Read my lips: INVESTORS DO NOT DO BUSINESS IN PARIAH STATE LED BY THUGS!

    You have promised free and fair elections and yet you have done nothing to make that possible. By rigging the elections you have just confirmed, if anyone was still in any doubt, that Zanu PF is a party of thugs. If you were to get away with rigging these elections then the next attempted regime change will have to be yet another military coup - one hopes that this time it will get rid of all the thugs and not just a handful as last November's coup!

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  5. Five years after promising to deliver 2,2 million jobs if voted back into power, Zanu-PF is back promising 1,5 million houses in the next five years, if given another mandate in elections expected between July and August.

    When you know the manifesto is nothing more than a prop in a theatrical presentation that does not mean anything; you know whether the voters believe the 2.2 million jobs or 1.5 million houses, is irrelevant because their vote counts for nothing when you have a veto; you can promise anything you like.

    The only subject worth discussing is whether these elections are going to be free, fair and credible. We now know that they are not going to be free. The next subject is what should we do about another rigged election? Those talking about the Zanu PF manifesto are wasting time and energy and must be silence a.s.a.p.

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