Friday 8 October 2021

EU calls for reforms BEFORE elections and MDC A is hell-bent on elections WITHOUT reforms. Why oh why! N Garikai

 The people of Zimbabwe have failed to bring do anything to stop the economic rot that started soon after independence and has grown worse and worse in the last 41 years because they could not remove the corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF from office. Zanu PF rigged the elections and as long as the party had the carte blanche dictatorial powers to rig elections, the nation will be stuck with the regime, stuck with the economic meltdown. 


By the late 1990s the people of Zimbabwe were aware of the need to implement democratic changes designed to end Zanu PF’s dictatorial powers and restore the individual freedoms and rights including the right to free elections and even the right to life. The people have risked life and limb to elect Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends into power on the understanding the party will bring about the democratic changes the nation was dying for. 


Sadly, it was not to be, MDC leaders have failed to implement even one token reform in the last 22 years, 5 of which they were in the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Not even one reform! 


Morgan Tsvangirai and company promised to bring democratic change, they even named their party Movement for Democratic Change, and yet they have failed to bring about even one democratic change. It is now clear they have no clue what needed to be changed much less how to bring it about. Even now, with the benefit of hindsight MDC leaders still have no clue what is wrong and hence the reason they keep blundering from pillar to post.


“THE CITIZENS UNITED ARE UNDEFEATED!

We need an all-hands-on-deck approach to usher in a NEW GREAT ZIMBABWE and bring the much desired real change.

Your hand is needed and your involvement matters! #CCC.” Posted Nelson Chamisa, President of the MDC A, on Facebook. 


Last week it was, "WE'RE READY!” A month go it was, “I have SOLID PLAN for real change!”  


The import of all these rancorous rallying calls is to mobilise the nation to participate in the 2023 elections. What Chamisa is stubbornly refusing to accept is the simple reality that Zanu PF has managed to stay in power all these last 41 years not because the party blatantly rigged the elections. 


The EU send a 242 strong team to observe Zimbabwe’s 2018 elections and the dismissed the process as a farce. “The electoral commission lacked full independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner. The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability,” stated the EU Observer Mission Final report.


“As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards.”


The EU has just reminded Zimbabwe’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Frederick Shava Harare must implement the reforms recommended in the Elections Observer report before the 2023 elections. 


“First meeting with FM Zimbabwe @ShavaHon. A comprehensive discussion covering bilateral relations, COVID-19 response, future co-operation and complex regional situations.  I reiterated the need to fully implement political and economic reforms, including EOM recommendations.” said Urpilainen EU Commissioner on International Cooperation. 


There is no doubt that Chamisa and company have nothing up their sleeves to stop Zanu PF rigging the 2023 elections. We need the reforms implemented before the 2023 elections otherwise Zanu PF will once again rig the elections. 


By participating in these flawed and illegal elections; Chamisa and company are giving vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy and thus making it very difficult to censor the regime. What makes this so infuriating is MDC leaders know this and still they do it out of greed! 


“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,” admitted David Coltart, MDC A Treasurer General, in his Book.


“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.”


So Nelson Chamisa and his MDC friends not only sold-out big time by failing to implemented even one reform during the GNU when they had the golden opportunity to do so; they are now hell-bent on participating in flawed elections to give vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy. And all because they are breathtakingly incompetent, they still have no clue what the democratic reforms are about, and, above all, their greed knows no bounds! 


It is ironic that the EU, SADC and many others have been calling for reforms before elections and it has been none other than the opportunistic Zimbabwe opposition who have pushed for elections without reforms. They did not even have the common sense to demand something as basic as a verified voters’ roll.


It is insane to keep participating in flawed elections to give vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy. The insane dragging the nation into these meaningless elections to gratify their greed must be exposed for who they are and the madness stopped.

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