Changing The Game: No Reforms No Elections

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has just played his last card and shown that dictators never change their colours. Those who believed that the last five years of SADC and African Union "engagement" were a tactic by Mugabe to buy time while he devised new ways of staying in power without the consent of the people have been proved right.

By announcing a July 31 election date following a kangaroo Supreme Court ruling Mugabe has just thrown away all semblance of respect for the people whom he has ruled with an iron fist for 30 years.

It is time that we told the international criminal court that this man and the coterie around him are mere criminals involved in primitive accumulation of wealth and reducing to a fourth world country a country that should by now have achieved second world status.

The reasons that Movement for Democratic Change President Morgan Tsvangirai is rejecting the date are not just legalistic, that he was not consulted, but there is a real need, which was identified by the SADC for state institutions to be depoliticised and to level the electoral playing field before any election is held.

On the legal front, the day before Mugabe announced the election date, after consulting only his own party's Politburo, the Prime Minister's Office wrote this unassailable legal opinion which shows that the President's actions are in violation of the Constitution which he signed into law only last month.

Fellow Zimbabwean it is now time to open our eyes and take action before our country is thrown to the wolves, because Mugabe's strategy is now clear to all of us - set the election date before the SADC meeting and present it to SADC as a done deal while knowing very well that SADC cannot do anything about it.

Mugabe will force an election on July 31, without reforms, and in fact without any rules (because rules have to be agreed between all contesting parties to an election); the voter registration has been blatantly rigged by exclusion of so-called aliens and first-time voters; voters will be so intimidated because they still fear the violence of 2008; others will think that it is not worth voting because the election is already rigged; and of course ZEC officials will be able to rig since no rules have been agreed.

These are the same Electoral Commission officials who pronounced the 2008 election as free and fair, only for it to be revoked by the African Union - leading to the Global Political Agreement which called for free and fair elections under a new and constitution.

Even if the election is disputed, Mugabe and his cohorts will maintain that it was free and fair, and any appeal to the Constitutional Court will also be fruitless as it was packed with partisan judges - who were also unilaterally appointed.

We have already seen that the chairperson of the Election Commission, Rita Makarau is not interested in upholding the law. She is the one who should  have said that this election cannot go ahead until all interested parties are agreed about the environment.

Our country is at a crossroads and it is time for an honest and candid conversation on the future of our homeland. If we the people fail to intervene right now, our country will slide into a dangerous slippery slope, and beyond repair - as  it will now be ruled by even more hardened soldiers pretending to run a civilian government.

Our friends in the region (SADC and the African Union (AU) have done as much as they can to bring normalcy to our political crisis; it is now up to us the legitimate sons and daughters of Zimbabwe to stand up and correct the wrongs of the past.

Zimbabwe cannot afford another election without proper reforms that guarantee free, fair and indisputable elections. It will be a travesty of insurmountable proportions for any democracy loving person to allow the elections to proceed on July 31st or any other date for that matter under the prevailing conditions.

The 21st Movement commends the Prime Minister of  Zimbabwe, The Right Honorable Dr. Richard Morgan Tsvangirai, on his bold stance of refusing to be cowered into a predetermined election that has no credibility and dismally fails to protect the vote and the voter.

Let's stand together with this great democrat of our times and give notice to President Mugabe and his Zanu PF that henceforth it will never be business as usual. Rather than feeling helpless in this situation, we should stand up to give notice to the dictator that the game is up; that we are no longer going to be fooled; and also give notice to the international community that we have stopped negotiating, and are now calling for Mugabe and all his criminals to be arrested.

Evidence of Gukurahundi is there waiting; evidence of the atrocities against the MDC activists is there waiting; Murambatsina was condemned by the United Nations; evidence of the stealing of diamonds is abundant. They have disbanded the the SADC Tribunal which would have been the next court of appeal after the tainted Supreme Court, so let us give notice to the International Criminal Court that we are bringing Mugabe there.

Let us us also give notice to his judges that their time is now as limited as Mugabe's own time; to his propagandists, that they are just as complicit as the lawyers and soldiers who protect Mugabe.We have one week to prepare for our Round 18 of demonstrations next Saturday at the nearest Zimbabwean Embassy to you. If there is nothing organised at the Embassy near you, why don't you take it upon yourself to organise the demonstration; take pictures and share on social networking sites, including our Facebook page, 21st MovementThis time we are proposing that, besides demonstrating, you hold strategy meetings, and resolve on the way forward, and also if you can agree on future dates: July 21, 25 August, 21 September, 19 October, 23 November and 21 December to ensure that those who want to plan ahead can do so. This is a complaint that has been raised.

Join us on Saturday, June 22nd at the Zimbabwe Embassy near you anywhere on planet earth to demand once and for all that there should be no elections without reforms. The ball is in your court, do what is right for your country. Stand up and be counted.

Den Moyo - Chairman 21st Movement Free Zimbabwe Global Protest