“IF the citizens do not
feel any longer represented by the men and women they have cast their ballots
for, and Parliament is no longer effective in serving the common good, can no
longer defend human rights, and preserve human dignity, opposition parties will
resort to political pressure and demonstrate publicly against hunger,
unemployment, failure of health services and education, including the breakdown
of public transport,” wrote Father Oskar Wermter SJ.
I wish our situation was
that simple and clear cut. Alas, it is not!
How can we say the people
of Zimbabwe “cast their ballots for” this Zanu PF regime when 3 million in the
diaspora were denied the vote, rural voters were subjected to intimidation and
harassment by tradition leaders and Zanu PF operatives, etc. ZEC squandered US$
75 million on procurement of the biometric voter registration kits and yet
still failed to produce a verified voters’ roll.
“The electoral commission
lacked full independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner,”
stated the EU Observer Mission final report.
“The final results as
announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked
adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability. Finally, the
restrictions on political freedoms, the excessive use of force by security
forces and abuses of human rights in the post-election period undermined the
corresponding positive aspects during the pre-election campaign. As such, many
aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international
standards.”
There was a mountain of
evidence of the serious flaws and illegalities in the affidavits presented to
the Constitution Court from both Chamisa and ZEC. A close examination of the
data submitted by ZEC showed there were three different vote count totals all
different from Chamisa’s totals; proof of the “numerous errors” mention in the
EU report. Worse still, it was clear no one was able to verify and trace any of
their figures because key documents like the verified voters’ roll and V11
forms, summary of vote count by polling station, were never released.
Why the Constitutional
Court ignored all the glaring flaws and illegalities in the conduct of the
elections and still declare the process free, fair and credible, beggars belief.
The judgement was based on the “primary source evidence”, said the Chief
Justice Malaba.
Apparently the Court
assumed the evidence in the sealed ballot boxes, “primary source”, contained will
have no errors; the missing V11 forms, will all be there; although the voters’
roll was never verifies the copies in the boxes will be verified; etc. The
court did not ask any sealed ballot boxes to be opened to satisfy themselves
that any of the assumptions were right. In other words, the judgement was more
a matter of faith and not evidence.
Of course, the Constitutional
Court, like ZEC and all the other state institutions, is corrupt and compromised.
We should not forget the same judiciary had ruled the November 2017 military
coup “legal, justified and constitutional!”
The country’s corrupt and
incompetent MDC opposition is mudding the waters by failing to implement the reforms
to stop the rigging and by participating in flawed and illegal elections. It is
clear MDC will participate in the elections regardless how flawed and illegal
the process gets for the sake of winning the few gravy train seats Zanu PF
dishes out as bait.
“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,” confessed David Coltart, MDC-Ncube
minister in the 2008 to 2013 GNU.
“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.”
Four of the MDC factions
did form a coalition before last year’s elections and still they all
participated in the flawed elections out of greed.
MDC did win most of the
gravy train seats given away as bait and hence the reason the party has
endorsed the elections as free, fair and credible. The party has withheld its
endorsement of Mnangagwa as the winner of the presidential race but only for
the purpose of force him into a power sharing arrangement in which Chamisa and
other MDC leaders will be appointed ministers.
No Father, Zanu PF
blatantly rigged last year’s elections; the regime has no mandate to rule, it
is illegitimate, and it must step down. After decades of Zanu PF rigging elections
and letting the regime get away with it; it is imperative that we start being
honest with ourselves and call a spade a spade.
We must now spend all our time,
sweat and treasure on getting Zanu PF to step down so we can appoint an interim
administration that will implement the reforms and finally end the curse of
rigged elections. The MDC’s ambivalence on elections is frustrating our efforts
by giving Zanu PF some modicum of political credibility. We should be wry of
MDC’s treasonous habit of running with hare and hunting with the hounds.
The Heads of the Mission of the delegation of the European Union, France, Germany, Greece, The Netherlands, Romania, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, the Heads of Mission of Australia, Canada and the United States of America have issued a joint statement condemning the abuse of Human Rights of citizen in Zimbabwe by the government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
ReplyDeleteThe countries said they are concerned by the crackdown on opposition members and trade unions that was witnessed prior to the banned August 16 MDC demonstrations.
When the country is facing the serious economic situation of 90% unemployment rate, hyperinflation, shortages of food, fuel, medicine, etc. Allowing people to exercise the democratic right to protest is certainly a luxury this Zanu PF regime cannot afford. There is so much bottled up there will be millions who would join the protest and they will be well motivated to join the protest day after day after day.
Since the regime has nothing to offer the people to convince them it is doing something to end their hardships we can be 100% certain the protesters would be coming out to protest again and again until there is challenge. bound to be a lot of bottled anger out there.
Zanu PF has worked itself into a corner, the party knows it cannot allow the protests because the only outcome will the regime being booted out of office. It also knows that the situation is so bad no amount of repression is going to stop these people risking it all and protest because people are not going to suffer and die quietly like sheep in the slaughter-house.
The regime would be out of office by now was it not for the corrupt and incompetent opposition. Many people are not joining the protests because they do not see MDC’s power sharing proposal as a viable way forward.
Government of Zimbabwe expects those countries committed to supporting the freedom of expression, association and assembly politically stable, economic stable and prosperous Zimbabwe to exercise impartiality and not to unduly interfere in the internal affairs of Zimbabwe in a way that promotes unrest and public disorder unless they harbor an ulterior motive. seen as facets for a politically stable and prosperous Zimbabwe- to exercise impartiality and not to duly interfere in the internal affairs of Zimbabwe in a way that promotes unrest and public disorder unless they harbour an ulterior motive.
ReplyDeleteZimbabwe remains committed to carrying out reforms necessary for addressing the political, social and economic challenges in the country. In this vein, Government is open to engaging its partners in the international community on best ways of implementing the reforms.
Regarding national dialogue, the door remains open to all political players to converge in the national interest and this process is currently underway under the aegis of the Political Players Dialogue (POLAD).
With the economic situation getting worse and worse Zanu PF knows that it cannot afford to allow any protests of any form even if it had cast iron guarantees there will be no violence. There is so much bottled up anger millions will be out to support the protest and they will be motivated to come out again and again until there is meaningful economic recovery or regime change. We know Zanu PF cannot deliver the former and therefore be forced to swallow the bitter pill of regime change.
There was no evidence of even one protester throwing a stone at the Police. All the brutal violence came from the Police.
As the economic situation is set to get worse there will be more and more call for peaceful protests. How long does the regime think it can continue to deny the people the right to be heard under the pretext the protests will be violent?
Zanu PF promised to hold free, fair and credible elections and know what happened. It is naïve to believe the regime will ever implement any meaningful reforms. POLAD is just a gathering of Zanu PF and the country’s corrupt and incompetent opposition party poodles. The only reason Chamisa has not joined the others is because he is demanding more gravy train seats for himself and fellow MDC leaders. Neither POLAD nor Chamisa’s National Transition Authority will ever implement any meaningful reforms. This is a waste of time!
@ Edmund
ReplyDeleteI think you have missed the point completely. Anyone and everyone who cares about the tragic events in Zimbabwe should be actively involved in the search for a way out and Father Wermter is one of the few who cares passionately about what is happening and has contributed greatly to the search.
I totally agree with Father Wermter that people must not be denied their right to peaceful protest. I begged to differ with him on the more subtle point that this Zanu PF regime was elected by the people. Zanu PF rigged the election, this is important to get right because whatever solution we come up with will be a waste of time if it does not address this fundamental problem of rigged elections.