Opposition must implement the reforms and not complain of rigged elections like Humpty Dumpty. By Patrick Guramatunhu

The MDC did not lose past elections, particularly the 2008 or 2013 elections, to Zanu PF because the opposition was weak or divided; they lost because President Mugabe was able to rig the vote and use violence to force the electorate to vote for Zanu PF. No serious political analyst would deny that Zanu PF will NOT win free, fair and credible elections. None!

 

 

So why has Zimbabwe’s opposition not concentrate all their political fire on implementing the democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections? Sadly this is now a rhetorical question since most of us know the answer to it; the opposition is full of corrupt and incompetent leaders and per se it is not in their nature to listen to reason or do what is logical!

 

 

One of the areas where the opposition leaders have shown repeatedly just how corrupt and incompetent they are and thus reason and logic has absolutely nothing to do with what they say and do is their propensity to quarrel over nothing and subdivide like amoeba. After every breakup each side has been as smug as a bug that has just shed off its old itchy and restrictive exoskeleton. Now that they have got rid of the deadwood, they each side expected to soar to dizzying heights of their political achievements.

 

 

More often than not the political fortunes of each breakaway party have sunk to new depths, instead! It is then that they start their seemingly never ending phase to their relationship; they talk incessantly about “putting the nation’s interest above their individual interests and differences” – whatever that is supposed to mean – to for a grand coalition.

 

 

All nonsense of course; these opposition leaders are corrupt and incompetent, that held them back when they were in the original MDC for example, it held them back when they were in separate MDC factions and it is bound to still hold them back if they were ever to form this grand coalition. It is the lack of quality leaders that has held them back and those who seek to substitute quality for quantity have always been disappointed in the end.

 

 

President Mugabe and his Zanu PF are happier with the opposition spending its time and energy subdividing into smaller and smaller factions and spend even more time and energy trying to put Humpty Dumpty together again – anything to keep away the opposition from implementing the democratic reforms. There is empirical evidence to suggest no reforms will ever be implemented because the opposition is so badly infiltrated with Zanu PF agents there to stop the opposition doing anything of substance. As the nation moves closer and closer to the next elections the opposition will start talking incessantly about forming a coalition which is exactly what President Mugabe would want them to do.

 

 

“Grand coalitions (are) no silver bullet for electoral victory over Zanu-PF,” argued political commentator and respected journalist, Geoffrey Nyarota.

 

 

Implement the reform and not complain after of rigged elections like Humpty Dumpty

 

 

Having failed to implement even one reform to stop the rigging the opposition will, nonetheless complain that the elections were rigged. After each rigged elections the Zanu PF propaganda machinery has always gone into overdrive blaming the lack of opposition unity for Zanu PF’s electoral victory, it is a convenient smokescreen to hide all the stories of the election irregularities.

 

 

It is three years since the July 2013 rigged elections and still not even one democratic reform has been implemented. Instead of the opposition panicking about the lack of meaningful progress in implementing reforms their attention is turning increasingly towards forming coalitions.

 

 

MDC-T members are divided on whether or not the party should join other opposition parties in a coalition. When asked to comment Luke Tamborinyoka, Tsvangirai’s spokesman told Newsday that his boss' position on the issue of a coalition had not shifted, adding that differences were healthy for internal democracy.

"We have insisted that talking about coalitions will be putting the cart before the horse. We need to speak with a common voice on the issue of the electoral environment, build trust and then at the appropriate time, talk of a coalition," he said

 

 

Tsvangirai’s position on coalition, like on many other issues, has shifted back and forth like desert sand domes befitting his “flawed and indecisive character”, said former US Ambassador Chris Dell according to a  WikiLeaks report!

 

 

The worst thing that could have happened as regards creating the “electoral environment” has happened because not even one meaningful reform has been implemented and we only have two years left before the next elections in 2018. It is looking increasingly unlikely that the opposition, such as it is, will be able to pressure President Mugabe to implement any reforms now. He is a seasoned tyrant and he is already whipping the opposition into panic mode were even the little common sense shown by the opposition will go out of the window.

 

 

The need to form a coalition is as instinctive to the panicked opposition as it is to the panicked shoal of herring under attacked from a pod of killer whales. The whales will blow bubble-net and slap their tails to create shock waves to force the herring to form a tight fish ball, easy picking for the whales.

 

 

Zimbabwe cannot afford yet another rigged election because the nation cannot afford to have the present economic meltdown go on for another day much less another five years beyond 2018. Since Zanu PF has clearly failed to bring about any meaningful economic recovery the only way out is to have regime change.

 

 

The only peaceful and orderly way to achieve regime change is by implementing the democratic reforms.  We the people and not the panicked, corrupt and incompetent opposition will have to demand the implementation of the democratic reforms.