Zimbabweans told to brace for early polls

Zimbabweans should brace themselves for early polls as the escalating factional and succession wars that are devouring the post-congress Zanu-PF could soon see the ruling party imploding completely, former prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC says.
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Speaking in a wide-ranging interview with the Daily News yesterday, MDC spokesperson Obert Gutu said that it was clear Zanu-PF was on the verge of a complete collapse due to its internal wars, as 91-year-old President Robert Mugabe fails to douse the deadly ructions.

"The next elections might actually happen earlier than 2018.

"You all realise how Zanu-PF is collapsing like a deck of cards and some of us are confident that 2018 could actually be very far," Gutu said.

Zanu-PF is currently dogged by vicious succession fights pitting a faction led by embattled Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa and a group of ambitious party Young Turks known as the Generation 40 (G40).

Even though Mugabe is in his political twilight, the increasingly-frail nonagenarian has studiously refused to encourage the emergence of a clear successor, resulting in impatient party members jostling violently for the number one position.

On the other hand, Mugabe is seemingly very worried about the fights that he recently said he was afraid that his party could split if the warring groups continued to fight.

Gutu said while the beckoning implosion of Zanu-PF would be an important political development in the country, his party was in the meantime working tirelessly to ensure that critical electoral reforms were implemented before the holding of the next elections.

"Our plans for 2018 are very clear … without reforms no elections," he said emphatically.

In June this year, the MDC decided to boycott by-elections to replace sacked legislators, demanding that the ruling party takes heed of its calls for electoral reforms.

"We have now been joined by several other opposition political parties. A few weeks ago, president Morgan Tsvangirai and 12 other opposition political parties signed a document, which has come to be known as the Nera (National Electoral Reforms Agenda) document.

"We are pleased to note that other opposition political parties have associated themselves with our complaint as MDC, in stating that elections in Zimbabwe have always been rigged.

"For as long as we have elections which do not pass the test of legitimacy, the political problems in this country will not be solved," Gutu said.

The MDC spokesperson said he was confident that the "political and diplomatic pressure on Zec (Zimbabwe Electoral Commission)" would lead to the implementation of the much-needed reforms.

"We know that inside they (Zanu-PF) are cracking. Already, Zec has invited all the opposition political parties in Zimbabwe to a series of workshops which has never happened before.

"Only two weeks ago, we had a strategic planning workshop to which we were invited with all the other opposition parties, together with Zanu-PF.

"Unfortunately, Zanu-PF didn't come. There were about 23 political parties which came and participated in the process of coming up with Zec strategic plans for the period 2016 to 2020," Gutu said.

He added that this Zec stance was a sign that Zanu-PF was yielding to the MDC's pressure because what was happening now, could not have happened a mere three years ago.

"The moment you see them doing this, you realise that the pressure you are putting on them is actually bearing fruit," Gutu said.