News / National
Starting voter registration now 'is jumping the gun' complain MDC - shot self in foot, again
15 Sep 2017 at 22:11hrs | Views
Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends are so breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent one can depend on them to shooting themselves in the foot every time! President Mugabe launched the long awaited Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) exercise yesterday and MDC seized the occasion to shoot themselves in the foot.
MDC have since launched a High Court challenge of the BVR exercise arguing that the electoral commission did not have enough equipment to register voters and that the registration process itself lacks transparency.
One of the glaring vote rigging irregularity in the 2013 elections was the regime's failure to produce a verifiable voters' roll. The regime has known all along that the country was going for this new BVR system and the task of producing a new voters' roll will be time consuming. Voter registration should have started years ago, not now with less than a year to go before voting day.
Even with the best political will in the world, there is no way anyone can register 7 million voters in four months being proposed, compile the data and produce the draft voters' roll, allow people check the draft, incorporate the corrections and release the verifiable voters' roll one month before voting day as is required by the law. We know political will to do the right thing is the one thing Zanu PF does not have.
Indeed, wasting time, dilly-dally over the purchase of the BVR kits, etc. was all deliberate so that the key activities of voter registration, etc. will then be rushed through allowing no time to check and verify the roll. Zanu PF regime is like a crocodile that muds the water so the fish cannot see it coming. This is standard Zanu PF modus operandi.
During the GNU Zanu PF wasted time on trivial matters and there was stampede to finish drafting the new constitution. In the stampede, President Mugabe "dictated the document," as Zanu PF MP on the drafting parliamentary committee, Paul Mangwana, latter boasted. Anyone would have learned after that but clearly not Morgan Tsvangirai and this MDC lot!
When voter registration did not start by 2014 MDC should have been concerned, by 2015 alarm bells should have started ringing and by 2016 there should have been panic in the opposition camp. The end of 2016 was cut-off date for starting voter registration. To be starting now can only mean one thing, the regime is mudding the waters to hide its vote rigging tricks.
It is no exaggeration, to say Zanu PF has started rigging the 2018 election! "The prescription of a date to close new voter registration creates a risk of disenfranchising voters," MDC argued in court documents seen by AFP.
"There is no need to jump the gun and order a chaotic, premature commencement of the registration process. "It is evident that, by and large, there are no kits to commence registration."
How pathetic is that? Instead of complaining that the voter registration has been unduly delayed and will not be done properly MDC leaders, in their infantile wisdom, are complaining in High Court that the process is being rushed.
"We will use all constitutional, political and legal pressure to make sure we have (an election) that is free and fair next year," MDC spokesperson Obert Gutu told AFP.
When the penny finally drops in the MDC heads that the voter registration was a hash-hash job giving them no time to check and verify anything it will be too late. They will have no legal leg to stand up on to complain that they were rushed when they are the ones asking for the process to be delayed!
With no reforms in place, billions of dollars looted from Marange diamonds, no obligation to produce a verifiable voters' roll, etc., etc. there is no doubt that Zanu PF will rig next year's elections. It is madness contesting elections one knows will be blatantly rigged. The only reason MDC leaders continue to contest these flawed elections is greed.
"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 (July 2013) elections," explained Senator David Coltart, MDC minister of education in the GNU, in his recent book.
"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."
It took the people of Zimbabwe 20 years or so to finally accept that President Mugabe and his Zanu PF ruling party are incompetent, corrupt and a tyrannical dictatorship.
Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends have been on the political stage for 17 years now and 5 of which in the GNU and yet they have failed to deliver even one democratic reform. Not one! There is a mountain of evidence proving beyond all doubt that they are breathtakingly incompetent and corrupt with a knack to shoot themselves in the foot. Still, many Zimbabweans continue to follow MDC blindly, like sheep to the slaughter, because having rejected Zanu PF they find it very difficult to reject MDC too regardless of their pathetic performance record. Zimbabwe is not the first nation to find itself in the unenviable position of having a incompetent, corrupt and tyrannical ruling party and an equally incompetent, corrupt and utterly useless opposition. We must have the political courage to accept this reality and reject both Zanu PF and MDC.
Both Zanu PF and MDC for their own selfish reasons are keen for next year's elections to go ahead regardless that they will not be free, fair and credible. This is madness and it is up to us the people to put an end to this charade. We must demand the implementation of the democratic reforms BEFORE elections and refuse to take any part in the voter registration, etc. because anything else we do will be seen as giving credibility to the flawed and illegal process.
MDC have since launched a High Court challenge of the BVR exercise arguing that the electoral commission did not have enough equipment to register voters and that the registration process itself lacks transparency.
One of the glaring vote rigging irregularity in the 2013 elections was the regime's failure to produce a verifiable voters' roll. The regime has known all along that the country was going for this new BVR system and the task of producing a new voters' roll will be time consuming. Voter registration should have started years ago, not now with less than a year to go before voting day.
Even with the best political will in the world, there is no way anyone can register 7 million voters in four months being proposed, compile the data and produce the draft voters' roll, allow people check the draft, incorporate the corrections and release the verifiable voters' roll one month before voting day as is required by the law. We know political will to do the right thing is the one thing Zanu PF does not have.
Indeed, wasting time, dilly-dally over the purchase of the BVR kits, etc. was all deliberate so that the key activities of voter registration, etc. will then be rushed through allowing no time to check and verify the roll. Zanu PF regime is like a crocodile that muds the water so the fish cannot see it coming. This is standard Zanu PF modus operandi.
During the GNU Zanu PF wasted time on trivial matters and there was stampede to finish drafting the new constitution. In the stampede, President Mugabe "dictated the document," as Zanu PF MP on the drafting parliamentary committee, Paul Mangwana, latter boasted. Anyone would have learned after that but clearly not Morgan Tsvangirai and this MDC lot!
When voter registration did not start by 2014 MDC should have been concerned, by 2015 alarm bells should have started ringing and by 2016 there should have been panic in the opposition camp. The end of 2016 was cut-off date for starting voter registration. To be starting now can only mean one thing, the regime is mudding the waters to hide its vote rigging tricks.
It is no exaggeration, to say Zanu PF has started rigging the 2018 election! "The prescription of a date to close new voter registration creates a risk of disenfranchising voters," MDC argued in court documents seen by AFP.
"There is no need to jump the gun and order a chaotic, premature commencement of the registration process. "It is evident that, by and large, there are no kits to commence registration."
"We will use all constitutional, political and legal pressure to make sure we have (an election) that is free and fair next year," MDC spokesperson Obert Gutu told AFP.
When the penny finally drops in the MDC heads that the voter registration was a hash-hash job giving them no time to check and verify anything it will be too late. They will have no legal leg to stand up on to complain that they were rushed when they are the ones asking for the process to be delayed!
With no reforms in place, billions of dollars looted from Marange diamonds, no obligation to produce a verifiable voters' roll, etc., etc. there is no doubt that Zanu PF will rig next year's elections. It is madness contesting elections one knows will be blatantly rigged. The only reason MDC leaders continue to contest these flawed elections is greed.
"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 (July 2013) elections," explained Senator David Coltart, MDC minister of education in the GNU, in his recent book.
"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."
It took the people of Zimbabwe 20 years or so to finally accept that President Mugabe and his Zanu PF ruling party are incompetent, corrupt and a tyrannical dictatorship.
Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends have been on the political stage for 17 years now and 5 of which in the GNU and yet they have failed to deliver even one democratic reform. Not one! There is a mountain of evidence proving beyond all doubt that they are breathtakingly incompetent and corrupt with a knack to shoot themselves in the foot. Still, many Zimbabweans continue to follow MDC blindly, like sheep to the slaughter, because having rejected Zanu PF they find it very difficult to reject MDC too regardless of their pathetic performance record. Zimbabwe is not the first nation to find itself in the unenviable position of having a incompetent, corrupt and tyrannical ruling party and an equally incompetent, corrupt and utterly useless opposition. We must have the political courage to accept this reality and reject both Zanu PF and MDC.
Both Zanu PF and MDC for their own selfish reasons are keen for next year's elections to go ahead regardless that they will not be free, fair and credible. This is madness and it is up to us the people to put an end to this charade. We must demand the implementation of the democratic reforms BEFORE elections and refuse to take any part in the voter registration, etc. because anything else we do will be seen as giving credibility to the flawed and illegal process.
Source - Patrick Guramatunhu
