Welshman Ncube urges MDC supporters to remain calm

LOSING presidential candidate Professor Welshman Ncube of MDC yesterday described MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai's attempts to discredit the election outcome as a futile exercise that will not reverse the will of the people.

Breaking his silence since the elections on Wednesday last week, Prof Ncube whose party failed to win a single seat in the National Assembly elections under the first-past the post for the 210 seats, conceded defeat and urged his supporters to remain calm.

He acknowledged that the endorsement of last week's crunch election by the regional and continental observers legitimises the Zanu-PF victory, despite criticisms by the West and its allies.

"The party has ruled out taking the dispute to the regional and continental organs principally Sadc and AU. These institutions have already made known their views about the process and outcome of the election," said Prof Ncube.

"That they have already pronounced satisfaction with both the process and outcome of the elections points to the futility of taking that course of action with any hope of a positive intervention.

"It is therefore our well considered view that taking this matter to court will be akin to going to Robert Mugabe and asking him to reverse his 'victory'."

His comments come in the wake of MDC-T and the West's calls to nullify the election results, which saw Zanu-PF winning a two thirds majority in Parliament with President Mugabe garnering 61,09 percent votes compared to Mr Tsvangirai's 33, 94 percent.

Several heads of state in Sadc, the AU, EU and North America including Mr Tsvangirai's former ally                                                                                                                      Professor Lovemore Madhuku, the leader of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) have endorsed the poll outcome and sent congratulatory messages to President Mugabe.

MDC-T has been urging people to protest, a move that has attracted widespread condemnation from different stakeholders across the country.
Prof Ncube however said his party had reservations over the manner the election process was handled saying the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) went into the election ill-prepared.

He cited inconsistencies in the provision of the voters' roll, alleged disqualification of his party's candidates, duplicate ballot papers and double voting. He said despite these irregularities, Zimbabweans should look ahead.

Turning to the future of his political career, the Constitutional Law Prof Ncube said his party was focusing on rebuilding itself for the 2018 election and will not waste time on arguments over the election outcome.

"We accept our situation as a passing phase. There can be no Egypt without a Canaan. For us it is a test of faith in the system we believe in and know that it will be achieved," said Prof Ncube.

"As president of my party I say, 'Fear not, I will be with you all the way, I will neither retreat nor surrender. Let none of us give up, we will walk hand in hand to the bitter end if need be for our cause is necessary and just. What we stand for is absolutely important. "Therefore from this day we commence re-building on all fronts for the 2018 elections. We have no privilege of taking a rest. Let us keep the faith, together we will win."

Prof Ncube also cried foul that his party came out weak from the Inclusive Government compared to Zanu-PF, which emerged stronger.
"In 2008, our party went into a negotiated process and in doing that our sole and primary interest was to save Zimbabwe from burning at the hands of Zanu-PF. Sadly we ended up saving Zanu-PF who have turned around and sunk their teeth into the hand that pulled both them and Zimbabwe from the precipice," he said.

"We do not regret saving our burning country then. We, however, will not be helping Zanu-PF again in Government or indeed any way or form this time around. We have come through the fire, learnt lessons through our experiences and we are ready to prove  that we are visionaries, builders and the party of the future.

"We have taken stock of all that happened and while there are no easy answers, we have resolved to continue the fight for a fully devolved Zimbabwe because we believe that the problems which we find ourselves in as a country, can only be solved through a paradigm shift diametrically different to the centralised system of Government which landed us where we are today," he said.

Prof Ncube said his party believed in devolution of power and vowed to continue pursuing that ideology while noting that last week's election gave his party a tough lesson.

"It is therefore incumbent upon all of us to accept that the solution to our national political problems will be delivered by us as Zimbabweans facing Mugabe and his party head on and defeating them," said Prof Ncube.

MDC only managed to get two seats in the National Assembly and two in the Senate under proportional representation.