Zimbabweans like to make long speeches “full of sound and fury but signifying nothing”, just to impress others. The bottom line is Zimbabweans in the diaspora will not vote next year because Zanu PF is cherry picking on who will vote and who will not!
Andrew Makoni said: "The diaspora vote is one of
the reforms being pushed alongside other reforms. Parliament has until the end
of the year 2022 to agree to electoral reforms and pass the necessary law.
There is still time for the electoral reforms to be made. However, it will be
up to Parliament to consider the diaspora vote or not. As Zesn we have been
pushing for a law allowing all citizens to exercise their right to vote despite
their location," said Andrew Makoni, chairperson Zimbabwe Election Support
Network (Zesn).
With a year to go before the 2023 elections there is no time
to implement the reforms so that the millions in the diaspora can vote. It is
the lack of political will by both Zanu PF and the opposition, not time, that
is at issue here!
In 2018, during his visit to USA for the UN General Assemble
Head of State jamboree, President Mnangagwa said Zimbabweans in the diaspora
will vote in the 2023 elections. It was the political right thing to say, he had
just claimed electoral victory in an election process many rightly dismissed as
a farce. Mnangagwa needed to earn himself some brownie points by promising the
next elections will be democratic.
Last year, the then acting Zanu PF spokesperson Patrick Chinamasa
announced the party will not grand diaspora vote as long as the sanctions
imposed by the West on a select few Zanu PF leaders remained. A feeble excuse
since the diaspora community was being punished for something they had no
control over!
Zanu PF has argued that the party will be at a disadvantage
since its leaders will not travel to the Western nations because of the sanction
travel restrictions. The overwhelming majority of Zimbabweans in the diaspora
are in the SADC region and none of these nations have imposed sanctions on the
Zanu PF leaders.
It is no secret that most of the Zimbabweans in the diaspora
are economic and/or political refugees running away from the consequences of 42
years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship. Of course, most of these
people in the diaspora are not going to vote for Zanu PF.
By denying the 3 million plus Zimbabweans in the diaspora
the vote, Zanu PF is cherry picking who will vote and who will not vote. This
is just one of the many vote rigging tools in Zanu PF’s vote rigging juggernaut.
The 3 million diaspora voters constitute 34% of the 8.6
million potential voters (5.6 million registered voters in the 2018 elections plus
3 million in the diaspora) or 125% of Mnangagwa’s winning 2.4 million votes in
the same elections. How an election process in which so many potential voters are
denied the vote can ever be judged free, fair and credible beggars belief!
It is right to blame Zanu PF for Zimbabwe’s political mess but
that is only half the story. The Zanu PF dictatorship would have been
completely dismantled by 2013, at the latest, if Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC
friends had not turned out to be corrupt, incompetent and utterly useless. They
have not only failed to implement the democratic reforms but are the ones
giving vote rigging Zanu PF by insisting in participating in flawed elections
against advice to implement reforms first.
How anyone can ever judge an election process in which 34%
of the potential voters are denied the vote a free, fair and credible process
beggars belief.
Zanu PF has denied 3 million plus Zimbabweans in the
diaspora the vote, 34% of the potential electorate, because it is part and parcel
of the party’s vote rigging. The party will get away with scott free thanks to
the opposition who continue to participate in the elections because they
believe denying 34% of the people their right to vote is not important!
@ Nelson Chamisa
ReplyDelete“The CITIZENS government will come up with policy framework and turnaround strategy which among others includes the following:
Develop demand driven policies informed by inclusive policies and inclusive politics anchored upon an inclusive dialogue with all political actors, economic players, labour, business, civil society and academia with a view to build A NEW CONSENSUS and buy-in.
Our policies will be predictable, consistent and guarantee certainty - this will help citizens, economic agents, workers, business and investors to plan with certainty.
The corrupt will be an endangered species & extinct. We will eliminate corruption, enforce rule of law, foster political tolerance, constitutionalism and respect of property rights, which, combined, are critical ingredients required to attract investment, savings and production.”
This is nauseating in its childish naivety! One of Chamisa’s strategies to win the rigged elections has been to promise the Zanu PF cronies that he will allow them to enjoy the generous salary and allowance they are getting from Zanu PF if they switched sides and support him.
With no meaningful democratic reforms in place there is no doubt that the Zanu PF cronies will still wield lot of political power and influence; regardless, who wins the 2023 elections.
One of the reasons why Mnangagwa has failed to stamp out corruption and mismanagement is because the Zanu PF ruling elect benefiting from the corruption will never let him act. He knows that if he stamped out corruption his political power base will evaporate like mist under the Africa sun.
Chamisa’s influence over the Zanu PF ruling elite will be even more tenuous than Mnangagwa. It is naïve, to say the least, that Chamisa will do any better than Mnangagwa in stamping out corruption.
Chamisa is desperate to get into power, so desperate he is promising everyone the moon on a silver platter. The one promise he will keep is to let the Zanu PF ruling elite do as they please because they re the ones holding the think end of the whip, not Chamisa!
@ Nyoni Nyoni
ReplyDelete“Chamisa and Company should tell us what to do with rigged elections. They must stop telling us they are going to win, whilst they told us before, that they won all the elections.”
All Chamisa and co care about is power they don’t even have a clue how to get it much less secure it. If they did then they would have implemented the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging elections. They were con by Mugabe into believing MDC was so popular it could win rigged elections. And so, to this day Chamisa and company continue to ignore the sound advice to implement reforms before holding elections.
It does not help when you have a naïve and gullible electorate that continues to follow MDC like sheep to the slaughter! The overwhelming majority of Zimbabweans out there have no clue what the 2008 to 2013 GNU was about and so do not know that MDC leaders sold out big time!
FORMER ZRP boss Augustine Chihuri secured some relief Tuesday after the High Court gave him back a luxury Harare mansion valued at US$7 million.
ReplyDeleteChihuri, reportedly now based in South Africa, is accused of stealing some US$32 million in public funds while at the helm of the country's police service.
The State accuses Chihuri of using his authority as head of the police to fleece million of dollars in public funds which were channelled to five companies linked to family members and relatives.
The companies reportedly received US$32 million to supply various goods and materials to the police.
The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown and political paralysis – Zanu landed us into this mess and neither Zanu PF nor the equally corrupt and incompetent have any idea how to get the nation out of the mess - is four decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption. Zanu PF has rigged elections to secure its strangle hold on power.
Former Police Commissioner amass his wealth because he was one of the Zanu PF ruling elite with carte blanche powers to loot. He was not the only one who enjoyed these powers to loot. The top brass in the Police, Army, CIO, Prison Services plus a select few in Zanu PF and their cronies such as Kuda Tagwirei, the Chinese, etc.; have all grown filthy rich. They have all played their part in making sure Zanu PF remained in power at all cost.
Police Commissioner Chihuri boasted in his doctorate thesis of deliberately harassing the opposition and worse. They were the enemies of the state seeking regime change and the Police worked with Zanu PF to make sure that will never happen. After all Chihuri had the US$ 7 million mansion plus loot to protect!
Professor Lumumba is asking SADC and the AU to rally together to buy food and medicine for Zimbabweans. Meanwhile the Zanu PF ruling elite continues to cream off billions of dollars of the nation’s wealth to build mansions, buy posh cars and live their Holy Wood lifestyle. Only an idiot would see this as solution!
ReplyDeleteMugabe squander US$2 to 4 billion building his Blue Roof mansion money that could have been spend building Batoka Gorge Hydro, for example, increasing the country’s electricity supply by a second Kariba Dam. Mugabe used to spend a staggering US$24 million a year flying to the far East for his medical attention and meanwhile even the country’s referral hospitals were running out of even the basic drugs like pain killer!
It is a crying shame that anyone, would still fall for Zanu PF cheap propaganda of blaming sanctions for Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown in the face of the criminal waste of human and material resources by the Zanu PF ruling elite who believe they have the right to rule the country and to loot!
CITIZENS Coalition for Change (CCC) vice-chairman Job Sikhala wept in court yesterday after he saw journalist Hopewell Chin'ono in the gallery.
ReplyDeleteCCC party president Nelson Chamisa also attended the court sitting.
Sikhala and Chin'ono once spent time together at Harare's Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison after they were accused of inciting public violence.
They were caged for over 40 days while being denied bail. Sikhala said he and Chin'ono were being persecuted by Zanu-PF.
Sikhala has been arrested a record 67 times without conviction. His lawyers Alec Muchadehama and Jeremiah Bhamu insist that his arrests are politically-motivated.
The country would not be stuck in this political nightmare if MDC leaders had implemented the democratic reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU when they had the golden opportunity to do so. They did not because they don’t believe in the rule of law, in their hearts of hearts they believe they can win rigged elections.
People like Job Sikhala will never see the need to implement democratic reforms and hold free and fair elections. They view the interparty violence, the harassment and arrest by the Police, etc. as normal. Job Sikhala wears the “arrested 67 times”, “caged in Chikurumbi Mximum Security Prison for 40 days” as badges of honour!
Naturally Zanu PF would rather have Job Sikhala and his like as the opposition, they would happily play this cat and mouse political game than have any opposition that will demand reforms and put any end to this madness of participating in flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy.
Prosecutors allege Sikhala posted videos encouraging public violence following the recovery of Ali's dismembered, decomposing body.
ReplyDeleteSithole is accused of acting in connivance with Sikhala by reportedly organising transport which ferried mourners to Ali's homestead in Nyatsime.
The truth is this cat and mouse political game will never end because people like Job Sikhala view the political violence as normal cut and thrust of politics. He considers the arrest as a badge of honour. Zanu PF, for their part, would rather have this chaos and violence continue than give in to the demands of reforms to ensure free and fair elections.
By participating in these flawed elections CCC are giving Zanu PF legitimacy and that is all that matters to the regime. We need to denounce the opposition for their part in perpetuating the Zanu PF dictatorship. We want free and fair elections and not Job Sikhala’s silverback gorilla posturing!
The people must understand that this game of mindless political violence and chaos could and should have ended decades ago if the opposition had implemented the democratic reforms. There is no chance of the reforms being implemented whilst opposition leaders like Job Sikhala view the political violence as normal cut and thrust of politics. He considers his arrest as a badge of honour.
ReplyDeleteZanu PF, for their part, would rather have this chaos and violence continue anything to avoid having to deal with the thorny issue of implementing reforms and holding free and fair elections.
By participating in these flawed elections CCC are giving Zanu PF legitimacy and that is all that matters to the regime. We need to denounce the opposition for their part in perpetuating the Zanu PF dictatorship. We want free and fair elections and not any of this Job Sikhala’s silverback gorilla posturing!