"This Government has been working
towards reform. I have been impressed and I have always said so . . . I know
that the Cabinet has approved the principles for the repeal of Posa (Public
Order and Security Act) and has been discussing repeal of AIPPA (Access to
Information and Protection of Privacy Act) and those are all very positive
things," said USA Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Brian Nichols.
There has been no meaningful progress to talk
about here. “Working towards reform” is about as vague as one can put it! If
Ambassador Nichols is hoping that by praising the regime for doing nothing he
will encourage it to do something, he is in for a big disappointment. The
regime will no doubt be asking the Americans for sanctions to be lifted and
generous lines of credit, its reward for “working towards reforms”!
Zanu PF will drag its feet on implementing
the democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible election. Its aim
is to run down the clock to 2023 elections so the party can rig those elections
and extend its stay in power.
The only sure way to get all the democratic
reforms implemented to guarantee free, fair and credible elections in 2023 is
to force Zanu PF to step down. The party has no democratic mandate to govern
because it rigged last July’s elections.
We are
after a solution to end Zimbabwe's nightmare and not a gimmick. Praising Zanu
PF for doing nothing is a gimmick!
Zanu Pf has romped to victory in the recently held council by election in Cowdray Park Bulawayo.
ReplyDeleteThe party’s candidate Kidwell Mujuru beat closest contender Nomagugu Mloyi of MDC Alliance by 670 votes after polling 1 899 votes
So Zanu PF spent 60 tonnes of maize meal and 30 tonnes of rice in buying votes only to get less than 2 000 out of 23 000 registered voters! The voters took the freebies and gave the party the middle finger salute!
Vote-buying comes to its own in the rural areas where Zanu PF’s power over the voters is comparable to the medieval landlord’s power over the serfs who dwell on his land.
It is pleasing to see that the electorate also gave the opposition the middle finger. The people are wake-up to the reality that Zimbabwe elections are not free, fair and credible elections. The voters’ roll used here was never verified and ZEC officials were under strict orders to make sure copies are not smuggled out of the polling stations. The regime knows that any close scrutiny of the roll would open a can of worms. Mnangagwa and Zanu PF’s illegitimacy is still an open wound and proof of a cooked up voters’ roll will only break the bone.
The people of Zimbabwe must wake up to the reality that they cannot trust MDC to deliver free and fair elections because they are compromised. MDC leaders will continue to contest these flawed and illegal elections as long as Zanu PF allows them to win a few gravy train seats. A small price to pay as far as Zanu PF is concerned!
Chamisa told New Zimbabwe.com in an exclusive interview Saturday after meeting visiting European Union managing director for the European External Action Service (EEAS) Koen Vervaeke that genuine dialogue remains Zimbabwe's only hope.
ReplyDelete"Most importantly we also discussed our attitude towards dialogue with Zanu-PF and Mnangagwa. The discussions also included political and economic reforms. We are clear that Mnangagwa has power but does not have the consent of the people," said Chamisa.
"We discussed peace building and national healing as well as economic reforms.”
What Chamisa has clearly failed to understand is that the EU had election observers in Zimbabwe and they have dismissed the whole election process as a sham because of the flaws and illegalities.
“The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability. Finally, the restrictions on political freedoms, the excessive use of force by security forces and abuses of human rights in the post-election period undermined the corresponding positive aspects during the pre-election campaign. As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards,” said the EU mission final report.
The EU’s position is an election process that has numerous errors, not traceable, etc. cannot produce a meaningful result and hence refused to accept Mnangagwa’s claim as the winner. It beggars belief that Chamisa expects the EU to accept him as the winner of the same flawed and illegal process.