Opinion / Columnist
'Flawed elections: result in failed state' admit Biti - yet continues contesting regardless
19 Apr 2017 at 11:51hrs | Views
"Zimbabwe is subject to internal, sovereign dimensions of intra-state activities including corruption, the rule of law, toxicity, hatred, contested elections resulting in state failure and fragility," Tendai Biti, the President of PDP said in his Independence Day message to the nation.
What he has pointedly refused to admit all these years is that it was him and his MDC friends who could and should have put an end to this teething problem of vote rigging. We have been stuck with with this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship for 37 years and counting because it has rigged elections to stay in power. All MDC had to do was to implement the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections. They had five years to implement the reforms but failed to get even one reform implemented.
SADC leaders warned MDC leaders not to contest the 2013 elections with no reforms in place but the warning fell on deaf ears. Samuel Sipepa Nkomo, one of Mr Biti's fellow MDC minister in the GNU has since admitted the party was warned and ignored the warning.
Senator David Coltart, another MDC minister in the GNU, has also admitted that a few months before the 2013 elections it was self-evident that Zanu PF was going to blatantly rig the elections and if MDC leaders had withdrawn from the elections even then they would have forced the implementation of the democratic reforms. They all failed to do the logical thing and contested the flawed elections for one selfish reason – 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 elections," explained Senator Coltart.
"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."
Mr Tendai Biti and his political party PDP was one of the opposition parties that have boycotted all by-elections since the July 2013 rigged election. "No reform, no elections!" they said. They had finally seen the sheer folly of contesting flawed and illegal elections!
The party has since flip-flopped on boycotting the elections to force the implementation of reforms. PDP is going to contest the 2018 elections even though not even one democratic reform was implemented since the July 2013 rigged elections.
"I want to look the tyrant (President Robert Mugabe) in the eye!" Tendai Biti explained in a recent LIVE Zimeye panel discussion.
Yes, Mr Biti you want to look the tyrant in the eye! But to what end and purpose? Last time you looked him in the eye you ended up singing his praises. You called him "Father of the nation, fountain of wisdom, unflappable, etc., etc." You were so engrossed in singing the praises you and all your fellow MDC leaders failed to get even one reforms implemented in five years.
You were elected back in parliament after the 2013 elections and was there for a year. What reforms did you implement then?
No Mr Biti you are not doing the people of Zimbabwe any favours by contesting these flawed elections; you are doing it for one selfish reason – greed.
Since the 2008 elections President Mugabe and Zanu PF have learnt that no matter how flawed the election get, they will have no legitimacy problem as long as they allow the opposition to win a few seats. You are not contesting the 2018 elections to "look the tyrant in the eye"; you, Mr Biti, have your beady eyes on the few bait gravy train seats!
"Together Another Zimbabwe is Possible!" concluded Tendai Biti.
Yes, another and better Zimbabwe is possible but it is certainly not going to happen as long as we continue to waste one golden opportunity to implement reforms after another. By contesting flawed election you and your fellow opposition politicians are not only forfeiting yet another chance to forces through reforms but are giving the vote rigging the democratic legitimacy it clearly does not deserve.
By contesting in Zimbabwe's flawed elections you are saying do not know constitute free and fair elections and/or such elections are beyond our reach as a nation and therefore we should just lower the bar and accept the rigged elections. How then you expect any political change, is a mystery!
If you have no clue what constitute free and fair elections after 37 years of first-hand experience of Zanu PF vote rigging and of 2 500 years of democratic history since the Greek invented democracy under your belt; then you are a hopeless case, you will never learn.
If you, Mr Biti, with all your University Degree and world experience still have no clue what democracy is about, what hope is there that povo, in Zimbabwe's rural back waters will know any better! You are a representative sample of the best minds the country has on offer, creme de la crème, (and judging by your high profile and the high offices you have occupied in the past, Minister of Finance; you are top-man); then it is little wonder the country is in a total political and economic mess. What is worse, as long as the nation continue to follow blindly corrupt and incompetent leaders like you, the country has no chance of ever climbing out of the hell-hole it now finds itself in.
With corrupt and incompetent leaders like you in charge, who will continue contesting in flawed elections hoping for a different result even after 37 years of rigged elections, a better Zimbabwe is impossible. OUT OF THE QUESTION! IMPOSSIBLE!
What he has pointedly refused to admit all these years is that it was him and his MDC friends who could and should have put an end to this teething problem of vote rigging. We have been stuck with with this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship for 37 years and counting because it has rigged elections to stay in power. All MDC had to do was to implement the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections. They had five years to implement the reforms but failed to get even one reform implemented.
SADC leaders warned MDC leaders not to contest the 2013 elections with no reforms in place but the warning fell on deaf ears. Samuel Sipepa Nkomo, one of Mr Biti's fellow MDC minister in the GNU has since admitted the party was warned and ignored the warning.
Senator David Coltart, another MDC minister in the GNU, has also admitted that a few months before the 2013 elections it was self-evident that Zanu PF was going to blatantly rig the elections and if MDC leaders had withdrawn from the elections even then they would have forced the implementation of the democratic reforms. They all failed to do the logical thing and contested the flawed elections for one selfish reason – 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 elections," explained Senator Coltart.
"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."
Mr Tendai Biti and his political party PDP was one of the opposition parties that have boycotted all by-elections since the July 2013 rigged election. "No reform, no elections!" they said. They had finally seen the sheer folly of contesting flawed and illegal elections!
The party has since flip-flopped on boycotting the elections to force the implementation of reforms. PDP is going to contest the 2018 elections even though not even one democratic reform was implemented since the July 2013 rigged elections.
"I want to look the tyrant (President Robert Mugabe) in the eye!" Tendai Biti explained in a recent LIVE Zimeye panel discussion.
Yes, Mr Biti you want to look the tyrant in the eye! But to what end and purpose? Last time you looked him in the eye you ended up singing his praises. You called him "Father of the nation, fountain of wisdom, unflappable, etc., etc." You were so engrossed in singing the praises you and all your fellow MDC leaders failed to get even one reforms implemented in five years.
You were elected back in parliament after the 2013 elections and was there for a year. What reforms did you implement then?
No Mr Biti you are not doing the people of Zimbabwe any favours by contesting these flawed elections; you are doing it for one selfish reason – greed.
Since the 2008 elections President Mugabe and Zanu PF have learnt that no matter how flawed the election get, they will have no legitimacy problem as long as they allow the opposition to win a few seats. You are not contesting the 2018 elections to "look the tyrant in the eye"; you, Mr Biti, have your beady eyes on the few bait gravy train seats!
"Together Another Zimbabwe is Possible!" concluded Tendai Biti.
Yes, another and better Zimbabwe is possible but it is certainly not going to happen as long as we continue to waste one golden opportunity to implement reforms after another. By contesting flawed election you and your fellow opposition politicians are not only forfeiting yet another chance to forces through reforms but are giving the vote rigging the democratic legitimacy it clearly does not deserve.
By contesting in Zimbabwe's flawed elections you are saying do not know constitute free and fair elections and/or such elections are beyond our reach as a nation and therefore we should just lower the bar and accept the rigged elections. How then you expect any political change, is a mystery!
If you have no clue what constitute free and fair elections after 37 years of first-hand experience of Zanu PF vote rigging and of 2 500 years of democratic history since the Greek invented democracy under your belt; then you are a hopeless case, you will never learn.
If you, Mr Biti, with all your University Degree and world experience still have no clue what democracy is about, what hope is there that povo, in Zimbabwe's rural back waters will know any better! You are a representative sample of the best minds the country has on offer, creme de la crème, (and judging by your high profile and the high offices you have occupied in the past, Minister of Finance; you are top-man); then it is little wonder the country is in a total political and economic mess. What is worse, as long as the nation continue to follow blindly corrupt and incompetent leaders like you, the country has no chance of ever climbing out of the hell-hole it now finds itself in.
With corrupt and incompetent leaders like you in charge, who will continue contesting in flawed elections hoping for a different result even after 37 years of rigged elections, a better Zimbabwe is impossible. OUT OF THE QUESTION! IMPOSSIBLE!
Source - Patrick Guramatunhu
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