'Big tent is serious business,' says MDC-T - feeble excuse for contesting flawed 2018 elections

"The big tent is real serious business. United we stand and divided we fall. Dr Morgan Richard Tsvangirai is our best foot forward. He can galvanize all Zimbabweans and win again. He is a magnanimous who always keeps his eyes on the ball," said MDC-T deputy secretary general Tapiwa Mashakada.

"During my door to door campaign in my Hatfield Constituency all the 100 households i visited today said they loved Dr Tsvangirai and wished him well. I was really touched to see that the people are solidly behind MT and indeed Zimbabweans still believe in this iconic figure."

This is just wishful thinking that will not fool anyone.

MDC-T's support peaked before the July 2013 elections, who could ignore the spectacle of the party's "cross-over" rally in Harare just days before the 31st July 2013 voting day. The nation believed that the new constitution would stop Zanu PF rigging the vote as MDC leaders had repeatedly assured everyone.

The people were shocked when Zanu PF went on to blatantly rig the vote. The people lost confidence in MDC there and then. The people know that MDC has failed to get even one reform implemented and therefore Zanu PF will rig next year's elections just as easily as it rigged the 2013 elections.

Indeed, Zanu PF has already started rigging the 2018 elections. The regime is deliberately delaying the voter registration, for example, so it can rush through the process allowing no time for anyone to check what is happening. After failing to produce the voters' roll for 2013 one would expect the regime to make sure it does not happen again. And yet that is exactly what is going to happen again.

The people of Zimbabwe have lost confidence in MDC-T; they know the party is not going to bring about any democratic change or free and fair elections.

The smaller opposition parties are in the MDC Alliance for the sake of getting MDC-T candidates stand aside, they will have no chance of winning any seat otherwise. Tsvangirai is welcoming them because he needs a leg-up to boast his sagging popularity. However, he is loathed to promise Biti, Ncube, etc. any seats because he is fearful of an internal revolt in his own party. He is stringing Biti and the rest along but for how long!

Even if the MDC Alliance was to become a reality, with the spoils of the winnable seats shared out amicably; so, what! The people know the MDC Alliance is just an excuse for contesting in flawed elections because the coalition is not going to do anything to stop Zanu PF rigging the vote.

MDC-T had the golden opportunity, the best since independence, to implement the democratic reforms during the GNU which would have stopped Zanu PF rigging elections. They failed to get even one reform implemented in five years. If Tsvangirai and company had refused to contest the 2013 flawed elections this would have forced Zanu PF to revisit the reforms; once again, MDC sold-out.

MDC Alliance will never dislodge Zanu PF from power, not as long as the latter has the licence to rig the vote. The best Tsvangirai, Mashakada and the rest in opposition camp can do for Zimbabwe now is for them to boycott next year's elections, which Zanu PF has as good as bagged already.

"The big tent is real serious business," Mashakada tells us. Yeah, right! There is less than a year to go to the elections and the Alliance partners have not agreed on the most important issue of all – how the winnable parliamentary and senatorial seats are to be shared out. This is just MDC-T desperately trying to give a positive spin in a hopeless situation.

After 37 years of rigged elections it is madness to keep contesting flawed elections; hoping against hope that for once Zanu PF will rig the vote but lose the elections! The nation is in a serious economic and political mess and we are only going to get out of this hell-hole by doing the right and logical thing – stop contesting flawed and meaningless elections.