“President Mnangagwa as tried and tested
politician, held separate meetings with chiefs, church leaders, youths,
students, whites and business community as well as farmers. The President
realised that for his message to be sector appropriate he had to meet these
interest groups separately so as to understand their needs,” wrote Elijah
Chihota in an article in Bulawayo 24.
The article praised President Mnangagwa to the
high heavens. An interesting narrative but sadly it was both false and
incomplete. It was all flesh and even bone and so instead of the human ED Chihota
had an overgrown slug!
Chihota did not mention that President
Mnangagwa came to be President following a military coup that ousted a corrupt
and ruthless tyrant, Robert Mugabe, whom Mnangagwa and his fellow coup plotters
had ruthless imposed on the nation the last 37 years by rigging elections and
even stage a pre-emptive coup in 2008 to stop MDC taking power.
The narrative fails to mention that when he
took office, President Mnangagwa promised to hold free, fair and credible
elections but clearly never meant to honour his promise as he has stubbornly
refused to implement even one democratic reform to make this possible. How can
these elections be free and fair when there is no free public media?
ZEC has failed to release a cleaning verified
voters' roll a month before nomination day, 14 June in this case, at the very
latest as is required by law. Up today, 5 days before voting day there is still
no credible, clean and verified voters' roll. How can any one judge these
elections to be credible when something as basic as a voters' roll is missing!
President Mnangagwa and his junta are blatantly
rigging these elections not that anyone with half a working brain is surprised.
After all these are the same thugs who staged a military coup only 8 months
ago; if they had no qualms committing a clear cut act of high treason then why
would they shy away from a much more subtle act of rigging elections. Besides
they have been rigging elections for the last 37 years; if they stopped now, even
their small-house mistress would divorce them disappointed they are no longer
the thug they were!
"Where is the evidence that the elections
were rigged!" retorted President Mnangagwa just two months ago, when a UK
Economist reporter reminded him of the rigged 2008 elections.
Mugabe has since admitted to losing the March
vote to Tsvangirai's 73% of the vote. Mugabe wanted to hand over power and it
was none other than Mnangagwa himself who told Mugabe to stay put.
Mnangagwa and his junta ordered ZEC to recount the
votes and after six week whittled down Tsvangirai's vote to 47% to force a run-off.
During the runoff it was again Mnangagwa and
many of his fellow November coup plotters who masterminded and carried out some
of the worst acts of wanton election violence in human history. No one, not
even SADC and the AU who have often turned a blind eye to dodgy Zanu PF
elections in the past, would pretend the 2008 elections were free, fair and
credible.
"Where is the evidence that the elections
were rigged!" What an insult!
Chihota, the real President E D Mnangagwa is a
corrupt, vote-rigging and murderous thug. Since the coup he has tried to rebrand
himself as Mr Nice Guy with his big smile and colourful scarf; only the naive
are fooled. A skunk soaked in several bottles of Channel 5 is still a skunk, a
flick of the tail will end all doubt. By rigging these elections; ED has proven
that behind the smile and scarf double act hides the real ED, a seasoned and
ruthless thug!
“His (ED) electoral theatrics over the past few
weeks have sold him for who he really is, more than the over 60 campaign
rallies which he has held so far. His candidature has been made an open book
from which the electorate needs to carefully study before casting their votes
next week,” concluded Elijah Chihota.
With no credible, clean and verified voters’
roll, only Zanu PF knows who these voters are and, more significantly, that
they will deliver a landslide victory for ED and Zanu PF, guaranteed! What matters
now is whether the international election observers will buy the theatrical electoral
fraud.
“The Southern African Development Community
(SADC) observer mission will not endorse a bogus election in Zimbabwe,”
reported Spotlight Zimbabwe.
“SADC
representatives led by Angola’s secretary
of state in the External Relations Ministry‚ Tete Antonio‚ said after meeting
political parties in Harare at the weekend that
they would not endorse a sham election as their mandate was to witness democratic processes.”
Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown and political turmoil
have brought heart breaking human suffering to millions of ordinary Zimbabweans
and many have paid with their very lives! The root cause of the economic and
political mess is the country’s failure to hold free, fair and credible
elections.
It is in SADC’s interest to end Zimbabwe’s
scourge of bogus elections not only to alleviate the tragic human suffering in Zimbabweans
but for the development and political stability of the region.
SADC leaders tried to end Zimbabwe’s political
crisis following the blatant cheating and wanton violence of the 2008 elections.
They tasked the GNU to implement a raft of democratic reforms only to be
disappointed when not even one reform was implemented at the end of the five
years. These rigged elections are giving SADC another golden opportunity to
revisit the reforms and make sure that this time they are implemented.
If the coup has transformed ED from the corrupt, vote-rigging and murderous thug of Mugabe years as he is desperately to portray himself to be then why has he stubbornly refused to implement even one democratic reforms to ensure these elections are free and fair. The big smile and colourful scarf is just an affront to fool the naive and gullible people into believing ED has change when in reality he is still the corrupt, vote-rigging and murderous thug of yesterday. ED is rigging these elections just as he has rigged elections in the past.
ReplyDeleteLook, ED and his junta had no qualms staging a military coup 8 months ago, why would they be phased by rigging elections when this is something they had done countless times these last 38 years.
Mapondera
ReplyDeleteWhen you and you alone get to decide who is going to be on the voters' roll, who is going to be allowed to vote and how many times it is not rocket science to see how it will be impossible for you to lose such an election! These elections are not going to be free, fair and credible not when there is not even something as basic as a voters' roll!
Zanu PF has already won these elections, long before people have cast any votes!
What is yet to be decided here is whether the international community especially SADC are going to rubber stamp these fraudulent and illegal elections? If I was you, I would not celebrate Zanu PF victory until SADC gives a thumbs up!
Yes Zanu PF out foxed MDC leaders to get them to participate in these flawed elections even after the experience of the rigged 2013 elections! But Zanu PF should not be so cocksure it has outwitted everyone else!
Zanu PF has won the battle of getting all Zimbabwe's corrupt and incompetent opposition to participate in these flawed elections - I will readily concede. still there is a lot more fighting to do before ED can claim he has won!
Tell you what Mapondera; I will tell you and your master, ED, when the fighting is done. As of now, this fight is not over! As for you, forget the celebrations, it is all premature. "Rwendo rurefu runoda manyatera! ED ngaato sunga dzisimbe!" as one would say in Shona.
Mnangagwa on Saturday demonstrated that he wants to lead an all-inclusive Zimbabwe, in the event that he is substantively elected in the July 30 elections, by meeting this group.
ReplyDeleteIt will be tempting for the whites to embrace President Mnangagwa but they would be making a big mistake. After 38 years of disastrous and tyrannical rule by Zanu PF the challenge before us all, black, white, Shona, Ndebele, male, female, etc. is to accept that we are in this together. The only sure way this nation is ever going to get out of this hell-hole we all find ourselves in is to accept that we will get out together or we will never get out.
By refusing to implement the democratic reforms which would have guaranteed free, fair and credible elections President Mnangagwa has shown that Zanu PF does not a holistic national vision but continues to pursue its divide and rule tactics. Our top priority right now is to restore this nation to a political system in which the individual freedoms and human rights including the right to free and fair elections and right to live are secured and guaranteed for all. No one can honestly say these elections are free and fair given ZEC has failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters' roll.
It would be politically expedient for the whites and Asians to overlook Zanu PF's failure to embrace democratic change in the hope that President Mnangagwa will look after them as he has already promised. Even if the whites and Asian were to get cast iron guarantees that he will honour his promise to them they must accept that they have set themselves apart from those of us Mnangagwa continues to treat as subjects to whom he continues to deny the basic freedoms and human rights.
Mnangagwa can never claim to lead "an all inclusive Zimbabwe" when he continues to deny many Zimbabweans a meaningful say in the governance of the country by denying them free, fair and credible elections!