"It's
a delayed match. The elections are a walkover. I will beat Mnangagwa hands
down. The darkest hour is just before dawn," MDC Alliance presidential
candidate Nelson Chamisa declared, to thunderous cheers from supporters at the
packed Tshovani Stadium, where Zanu PF Vice-President Kembo Mohadi addressed a
paltry crowd last week, reported Bulawayo 24.
So Chamisa
is now tacitly agreeing that these elections are not going to be free, fair and
credible. It is really tiresome to talk to a village idiot!
As far
back as the 2013 elections SADC leaders have advised MDC leaders not to take
part in elections without first implementing the reforms designed to stop Zanu
PF rigging elections. “If you go into next month’s elections, you will lose;
the elections are done!” they warned.
As we all
know MDC leaders did not listen and went on to participate in the July 2013
elections. Zanu PF blatantly rigged the vote, as SADC leaders had rightly
predicted.
We know
why MDC leaders did not paid heed to SADC leaders’ warning, greed as David
Coltart, former MDC Senator and Minister during the GNU readily admitted in his
book.
“The worst aspect for me about the
failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn’t now do the obvious –
withdraw from the elections,” explained Coltart.
“The electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only
logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to
account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither
could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning
seats and giving the process credibility.”
After the
rigged July 2013 elections MDC-T came up with the “No reform, no elections!” party
congress resolution. Last week the Alliance held a public demonstration and
made fresh “red lines reform demands”, as the party called them.
And yet
come nomination day, 14 June 2018, Mr Chamisa and his MDC friends will all be
submitting their nominations and contest this year’s election in total
disregard of SADC’s warning, their own party resolution and crossing they own
red lines!
"We
need free and fair elections. I know if we have a free and fair election, I
will win. There is no way Mnangagwa can win in a free and fair poll,"
continued Chamisa.
Yes, we
need free and fair elections, the nation is dying, literally, because for the
last 38 years the country has failed to hold free and fair election. The country
has had numerous opportunities to implement the democratic reforms and thus
ensure free and fair elections, the best chance by far being during the GNU,
but has wasted them all because MDC leaders have proven to be breathtakingly
corrupt and incompetent.
The sheer hypocritical
admission by corrupt and incompetent leaders like Nelson Chamisa that Zimbabwe needs
free and fair election and yet they are the ones who continue to deliberately frustrate
all efforts to have such elections has now reached treasonous heights. If you
really wanted free elections, then why did MDC fail to implement even one
reform in five years of the GNU? If you really wanted free elections, then why
are you, Mr Chamisa, contesting flawed elections?
The international
election observers must now take note that MDC and the rest of opposition
politicians taking part in these flawed elections are doing so out of selfish
greed. The observers must condemn these flawed elections because they are not
free and fair and just ignored the foolishness of the opposition in dragging
the nation into this mess.
Bureau Chiefs I am deeply concerned with the manner in which diaries of political parties are going uncovered in your areas. After the proclamation, we HAVE to cover all political parties especially the Presidential rallies. I am not going to tolerate a situation where ZBC is accused of not creating a level field under my watch.
ReplyDeleteCan ALL star rallies of presidential candidates be covered and the stories come in same day as we do for President ED Mnangagwa. It is a LEGAL requirement. I can't be explaining to ZEC why a rally was not covered. Please.
So, after 38 years of being brainwashed and being denied a voice ZEC and ZBC think allowing the opposition a few minutes a day of coverage will be enough for the public media to be deemed a free media?
We need to implement the democratic reforms designed to transform ZEC, ZBC and all the other State institutions into independent bodies and not the departments of Zanu PF in all but name they are today.
By rigging the 2008 elections, Zanu PF was forced to agree to the raft of democratic reforms. it is a pity that MDC leaders sold-out and failed to implement the reforms when they had the opportunity to do so during the GNU. By failing to hold free, fair and elections Zanu PF have given the nation another chance to revisit those 2008 reforms and one hopes that we learned our lesson and will implement the reforms this time!
ReplyDelete@ Chibwe
ReplyDelete"The Military Junta and Zanu PF know that without Rigging ED cannot win the 2018 Election. They use ZEC and the Courts to rig the Elections failing which they will engineer a GNU which ED will lead. Chamisa and MDC Alliance should refuse the GNU and let them Crush with a Collapsing Economy. Vote for Chamisa and MDC Alliance #Chamisa hasmyvote," you say.
Are you not is a catch 22: you admit that Zanu PF is rigging the elections and then you asking people to vote for MDC. What difference will voting do if the elections are rigged?
If you think the economic collapse is going to worry Zanu PF then you are even more naive than you think! The Zimbabwe economy is in total meltdown with unemployment a nauseating 90%, 3/4 of the people living on US$1.00 or less, etc., etc. and that has never worried these Zanu PF thugs in their massive mansions!
The challenge here is to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections and stop giving them the excuse for rigging by participating in flawed elections. After 38 years of rigged elections you have still learned nothing!
There was tension in Manicaland Province at the weekend as hundreds of MDC supporters protested at the alleged imposition of former Energy and Power Development Deputy Minister Munacho Mutezo as a candidate for Chimanimani West Constituency.
ReplyDeleteWhy in the name of Christ are we being forced to recycle the same deadwood; after decades in power only to land the nation in this hell-hole why are we still going for the same Zanu PF thugs! Our failure to learn from the past is certainly one of our greatest faults.
The only way this nation can get rid of these corrupt and incompetent leaders is for the nation to implement the reforms and reset its political system!
There is more to there elections than the inflated egos of Mliswa and Mutsvangwa; neither of the two have anything to offer the nation!
ReplyDeleteThe best outcome is for these elections to be declared null and void; there is no other way the nation can ever hope to break free from the corrupt and incompetent politicians now crowding the political stage!
Alex Magaisa was Morgan Tsvangirai's advisor during the GNU and it is hard to see how he can ever be judged as anything else other than a corrupt and incompetent advisor! MDC's principal task during the GNU was to implement the raft of democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections. MDC failed to get even one reforms implemented in five years.
ReplyDeleteThis whole article is premised on the assumption that these elections are free and fair or be it can do with some improvements. This is far from the truth. There is absolutely no chance of these elections being free and fair without first implementing the reforms. One would have thought that now, with the benefit of hindsight, this fundament truth had finally dawned on Mr Magaisa; clearly it has not.
Many people have often accused Zanu PF of infiltrating the opposition with double agents. For his role in MDC, Magaisa is either breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent or he was a Zanu PF double agent!
Zimbabwe and China on Monday signed a 1-billion-U.S.-dollar Memorandum of understanding (MoU) for establishing a steel plant that can produce up to 2 million tonnes of steel per annum.
ReplyDeleteThe MoU is among several deals signed at the start of a four-day Zimbabwe-China Business Forum that is being attended by a high-powered Chinese delegation from Zhejiang Province.
The delegation is being led by Che Jun, secretary of Zhejiang Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC).
Che said the delegation was in Zimbabwe to scout for business and investment opportunities to help Zimbabwe industrialize its economy.
Ever since the late 1990s when Zimbabwe broke up all economic relations with the IMF and WB, President Mugabe has openly wooed China with his "look East" economic policy. In the last 20 years Zimbabwe's economic has gone into total economic meltdown, China has never lighted a finger to help.
Indeed, China has been quick to join in the wholesale looting that has been going on and thus accelerated Zimbabwe's economic decline.
China knows that President Mnangagwa's "Zimbabwe is open for business!" was dead in the water from the word go. Investors did not believe him when he said Zimbabwe had change and all that "new dispensation" nonsense. They knew it would take a lot more than the removal Mugabe to transform the Zanu PF from a ruthless dictatorship into a democratic party. The junta confirmed its status as a ruthless dictatorship when the regime refused to implement any reforms to ensure free elections.
China is only stepping in as the alternative source of the desperately needed foreign investment needed to kick start Zimbabwe's economic recover to take full advantage of Zimbabwe's failure to impress western investors. By remaining Zimbabwe's only financial backer, regardless of whether any of these mega deals materialize or not, China will retain its economic dominance and political control of the country.
Ever since Zimbabwe attained her independence, China has always played a major role in helping Zanu PF rigging elections, they are doing the same this year with renewed zeal. This US$1 billion deal is more about politics that economics.
It is high time the people of Zimbabwe wake up to the political machinations of nations like China and demand that the political interference in Zimbabwe's political affairs stopped forthwith! Zimbabwe is in this economic and political hell-on-earth because the nation has been stuck with this corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging Zanu PF regime for the last 38 years. Unless we do something to stop the vote rigging, we will never get out of this hell-hole. It is totally unacceptable that China has played a major role in landing us into this hell-hole and, worse still, continues to play the same role in keeping us in there to this day!
The palpable sense of fear and nervousness gradually evaporated. I realised that I was no longer fearful talking to strangers until I knew their politics. I saw the police shake-down roadblocks begin to disappear.
ReplyDeleteI heard Mnangagwa welcome the opposition to the campaign, I saw him outstretch a hand to his opponent from the MDC at Independence Day celebrations and his talk of unity and peace resonated with me. I witnessed him allow a mass MDC demonstration through the streets of Harare and disallow a Zanu PF rally.
I saw that while all of our nation's problems did not evaporate overnight, I saw a president hard at work to change our reality and create the
building blocks for a better future. Mnangagwa was reversing our country's isolation, creating opportunities for the international community to invest in the Zimbabwean people and embracing technologies that will spur employment for our youth.
It is clear that he has a vision and a plan.
How naïve and gullible you are!
If Mnangagwa was a visionary leader, a man with a plan, then why has he sat on that vision for the last 38 years? The only notable thing he has ever done in all his 37 years as Mugabe's henchman was loot, rig elections and commit mass murders to impose the Zanu PF dictatorship.
Ever since seizing power in the last November's coup Mnangagwa "Zimbabwe is open for business!" has failed to impress anyone with half a brain much less the foreign investors. The much hoped for flood of investors has not materialized because they can see through the big smile and the "loud" scarf the same corrupt, vote rigging and murderous thugs of Mugabe days!
President Mnangagwa has promised to hold free, fair and credible elections and if you cannot see that these elections are been blatantly rigged then you are mentally blind, deaf and dumb! The junta would like you to participate in these elections, this gives the process some modicum of credibility. As for your vote, the junta does not care whether you vote or not; it has the veto!
@ Solomon Mashangombe
ReplyDelete"So Mr. Write you would want us to go back to the era of GNU and implement reforms. You as zsdemocrats what are you doing to have a free & fair election. Out of more that 120 parties that intend to contest this election why have you singled out MDC-T," you say.
"Hupenzi inyama yegakava!" (Idiots are stubborn and the insane are impossible!) as one would say in Shona.
Even the MDC leaders, village idiots, are admitting that these elections are not going to be free, fair and credible hence the reason they are demanding the reforms. They are asking Zanu PF to implement the reforms and, as even you, Solomon, has to admit Zanu PF thugs were not going to do ever for the simple reason that the regime will be risking losing power in a free and fair vote.
One does not need to be as wise as your name's sake, Biblical King Solomon, to come to the conclusion that if the Zanu PF thugs are not going to implement the reforms then the nation will have to come up with an alternative administration to do so. Last time the alternative administration was called GNU but you can call it something else, that is not important.
The criticism against the MDC-T for contesting in flawed elections is valid and it is equally valid to all the other opposition parties and independent candidates contesting these flawed elections. Your contention that MDC-T was being singled out for criticism is more symptomatic of one obsessed about trivial details but cannot focus on substance.
Zimbabwe Social Democrats members have made it clear that Zimbabwe will never have free, fair and credible elections without first implementing the democratic reforms. We have made it clear that we will never take part in flawed and illegal elections and hence the reason ZSD is not contesting in these elections.
@ Jovo
ReplyDeleteCould not agree with you more! Many people will readily admit that Zanu PF is rigging these elections and instead of demanding the reforms they are taking part in the elections hoping against hope that Zanu PF will rig the vote and, somehow, LOSE the elections this time!