Pastor Chamisa, a dictator in the making

The dangerous remark on compulsory voting system recklessly made by the vice president of the MDC-T, Pastor Nelson Chamisa, came at a time when many people had almost pinned the hope and future of the opposition party on him.

Pastor Chamisa recently called for compulsory voting for every citizen above the age of majority and urged the nation to take after Australia which has an obligatory voting system where citizens are penalised for refraining to vote. The utterances drew prompt scorn from Zimbabweans across the political divide. However, what is worrisome is the official silence of his party on its deputy president's remarks. In the absence of any official rebuttal or any comment on the unfortunate remarks, one is left with no option but to conclude that Chamisa's remark is a reflection of what his party believes in.  Ordinarily, such utterances would have seen Obert Gutu, the party's spokesperson springing up to distance the party from the unfortunate statement.

Ironically, the MDC-T is the first offender of Chamisa's proposed regressive law. The party, Tsvangirai in particular has been boycotting elections many times. They must be penalised first before we start penalising people who refrain from voting because of their own beliefs, some of which could be religious. They must be respected as much as Christians do not force anyone to go to church. Next time it will not surprise anyone to see Pastor Chamisa lobbying for compulsory ...

It now confuses everybody to see a party that claims to champion for democracy in Zimbabwe, advocating the adoption of dictatorial systems. Chamisa must be reminded that he belongs to a party that was wrongly named Movement for Democratic Change. The MDC-T and Chamisa in particular has shown a deep misunderstanding of the term democracy. It is actually a misnomer for that party to include ‘democracy' as part of its name unless it a misspelling for ‘undemocratic.' It has been proven beyond doubt that not even a single person in the MDC-T espouses democratic principles and it is as hard to identify one as finding a virgin prostitute. Thus, referring that party as a democratic movement is like conflating a church with a beer hall. That is dangerous, for some innocent people will unknowingly end up in beer hall thinking they are in a church.

"All they know is preaching about democracy but they wouldn't recognise it even if it slapped them in the face. How can they claim to be more democratic that Zanu PF and still threaten to imprison and fine people who choose not to vote," commended one reader. He indeed summed it up.

Chamisa and his party are lobbying activists such as Fadzai Mahere to mount Constitutional challenge to force Government to adopt a mandatory voting system. They are lobbying because they are not in power and if they get into power, obviously the issue of voting will become obligatory. Citizens must therefore brace up for more ‘force matters' should the MDC-T miraculously gets into power. That party is replete with dictators in the making. The last time we checked, Zimbabwe was a democracy where people had a right to vote or not to. Compulsory voting is even worse than being denied to the right to vote. Even Ian Smith never forced people to vote. He knew better than the learned advocate that forcing people to vote is undemocratic and definitely not liberal.

Of course, it's a good thing for citizens to vote in a democracy but nobody, not even the stupidest person must be forced to vote. The fact that mandatory voting system is practised in Australia does not make it a democratic practice. There are more democracies that do not force people to vote than Australia. This is the problem with puppets, they always think that what puppeteers do is sacrosanct. Does that mean Zimbabwe must also take after Saudi Arabia which prohibits women from driving? North Korea makes it mandatory for every citizen above the age of 18 to serve in the military for 10 years before they join professions of their choices. Chamisa seems to suggest that we must blindly copy.

 Even one of their masters in the New York State Assembly, Deborah Glick, a Democrat, recently introduced legislation that would establish compulsory voting in the State and punish those who don't vote with a $10 fine. They can do that in the US but in a democratic system like, it has one tiny flaw, it's not democratic. The whole point of democracy is freedom.

Chamisa wrongly believes that those who refrain from voting are MDC-T supporters. That is wrong. There is no guarantee that if they are forced marched into the ballot booth; they will invest their vote in the MDC-T. You can only force a donkey to the river but you cannot force it to drink. The MDC-T has failed to sell themselves to the electorate, thus they think forcing them will take them to the State House. No, that is a regressive policy that would hurt the citizens.