If Chamisa fools investors with lacklustre Con-Court double act, he deserves an Oscar W Mukori

There is no doubt that MDC should have never agreed to take part in these elections without first implementing the democratic reforms which would have made is very difficult for Zanu PF to rig the elections and, if they tried, to hide the evidence.

“MDC has stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections!” Chamisa had promised but many of us knew that was all hot air and events have confirmed this.

So the Con-Court challenge of the election results given Zanu PF had all the opportunities to rig the vote and hide the evidence because no reforms had been implemented was always going to be a tough fight for the opposition. Still people expected Chamisa’s lawyers to make a serious go at it and not make complete fools of themselves.

Advocate Mpofu, Chamisa’s lawyer, argued in court, that the number of people who only voted for the presidential candidates is very high. ZEC’s own tallies for parliamentary and presidential showed that this was indeed the case.

ZEC has admitted that some people refused to take the parliamentary and/or council ballot because they only wanted to vote for the presidential candidates.

It was not enough for Chamisa’s lawyers to have noted the discrepancy in the tallies of presidential and parliamentary ballots; they should have asked for random samples of sealed boxes containing ballots and all the other materials relating to the elections to be opened to confirmed a record of those who had made this request was kept as is required by law.

ZEC, in it’s own sworn affidavit, has stated that it kept no such record.

We already know that ZEC had failed to produce a clean and verified voters’ roll although this too is a legal requirement. So, what else was ZEC required to do by law but failed to do so?

There were 16 polling stations, according to Chamisa’s own legal submission, in which two or more stations had same number of ballots cast and Mnangagwa received exactly the same number of votes ±3 or so. In the 2013 elections, it is common knowledge that Zanu PF had bussed its supporters from one polling station to the next casting multiple votes. No one was able to prove this then because no verified voters’ roll was ever released, it was the smoking gun. This years, ZEC again refused to release the voters’ roll it is quite possible there was a similar vote rigging shenanigans.       

Chamisa’s team should have demanded to have the boxes of the 16 polling station opened for close scrutiny of the voters’ roll and established that nothing untoward had happened this time.

Many polling stations recorded over 100% voter turnout with some recording over 200%. ZEC dismissed these figures arguing that they were based on the provisional voters’ roll. Again it would have made good sense for Chamisa and his “A team”, as Chamisa called his lawyers to go through the elections material with a fine tooth comb!

Yes Nelson Chamisa and his MDC friends are breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent, God knows they have proven this countless times already. Still the way they handled this Con-Court case was as if they were going the extra mile to prove they are stupid or else they are paid and paid well to go through the motion and hence the reason why they not even making the effort.

Ever since Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends joined up with Robert Mugabe in the 2008 to 2013 GNU the MDC leaders’ passion for bringing about democratic change died. The fire died soon after the formation of the GNU when no one, not even SADC leaders, could get Tsvangirai and company to implement even one democratic reform.

“Mazivanhu eMDC adzidza kudya anyerere!” (MDC leaders have learnt to enjoy the gravy train good life, they will never rock the boat!) Was the standard answer from Zanu PF cronies to those asking why MDC leaders were not implementing even one democratic reform during the GNU.

Greed is the only logical explanation why MDC leaders failed to get even one reform implemented in five years of the GNU. Mugabe had seen to it that MDC leaders were pampered beyond their wildest dreams; they had ministerial limos, very generous salaries and allowances, a former white-owned farm for Welshman Ncube, a $4 million mansion for Tsvangirai, etc. In return MDC leaders kicked reforms out of the window!

SADC leaders tried once again to get Tsvangirai et al to focus on the need to implement the democratic reforms before the elections. They wanted the 2013 elections to be postponed until the reforms are implemented.

“If you take part in the elections next month, you will lose; the elections are done!” SADC leaders warned Tsvangirai and his fellow MDC leaders. The MDC leaders themselves could see that Zanu PF was blatantly rigging the elections but still they participated because of greed, as David Coltart, one of MDC minister in the GNU, admitted in his book.

“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 (2013) elections,” explained Senator Coltart. 

“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.”

Everyone expected MDC to challenge the 2013 election results because the vote rigging was so blatant. Tsvangirai complained of Zanu PF “stealing the elections” and threatened to challenge the result in court but only to drop the challenge after giving some feeble excuse.

In 2014 MDC leaders vowed they would not participate in any future elections without reform. “No reform, no elections!” they said. But, as we can see, they all participating in this year’s elections although not even one reform was implemented since the rigged elections of 2013.

As expected, Zanu PF blatantly rigged these elections. One cannot help but question whether Chamisa was not just putting up a show too.

“MDC has stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections!” said Chamisa. He has never named even one such measure because there was not even one. Many people cannot believe that Chamisa and company would take part in these elections even without something as basic as a verified voters roll! They all did.

Chamisa’s Con-Court challenge was careful planned to create the impression of a serious challenge but without uncovering anything of substance that would embarrass the regime. Proof, he play the double role of challenging the regime to please naïve and gullible audience without rocking the boat!

Americans, EU and other western nation who observed these elections are yet to say if the elections, complete with the not so convincing Con-Court performances, were free, fair and credible elections.

The toughest customers to convince the elections were free and fair will be the investors and lenders. The country needs their cash injection to kick start the economy and they are a shrewd lot, not be so easily fooled. They know the elections were rigged.

If the much hoped for flood of investors does happen, proof that Chamisa’s play acting convinced the investors that these elections were free, fair and credible, then Nelson Chamisa in a worthy recipient of an Oscar award. His role - for successful keeping up the act of running with the hare whilst hunting with the hounds for twenty years and counting!