Opinion / Columnist
'Mujuru will win IF elections are not rigged,' says PRC - yet is one blocking reforms to stop rigging
03 Jan 2018 at 16:47hrs | Views
"Mujuru will come first if there is no abuse of State machinery and resources to campaign for a factional Zanu PF," PDP (breakaway faction of the Tendai Biti PDP who have joined Mujuru's National People's Party (NPP) to form People Rainbow Coalition (PRC)) VP Sikhumbuzo Ndiweni told Southern Eye.
"The taking over of reins (of power) is guaranteed by the fact that PRC, Zimbabwe, SADC, South Africa and the international community can't afford a successive third coup in a row, first Tsvangirai in 2008, Mugabe in 2017; in 2018 (Zimbabwe) Defence Forces have no ace card."
There are far too many ifs for this to ever come true!
"If the military stays out of the elections!" A big slice of President Mnangagwa's coup cabinet is already made up of ex-military people who have first-hand experience in vote rigging. They are the ones who carried out the harassment, beating, raping and even murder of civilians during elections, particularly since 2000. The ex-military people who have just been promoted to join the cabinet are being rewarded for the pivotal role they played in the November 2017 coup that ousted Mugabe. They know they will lose their cabinet post is Zanu PF was to lose the elections. After decades of rigging elections for the benefit of others, it is naïve to think these military thugs are not going to rig elections for their own benefit!
"If there is no rigging!" How stupid is that? Not even one democratic reform has been implemented since the rigged July 2013 elections; so why would Zanu PF, for no apparent reason other than the opposition's wishful thinking, risk losing power by holding free and fair elections?
Indeed, Zanu PF's vote rigging juggernaut is already in overdrive already, the elections are being rigged as we speak! By unduly delaying the voter registration exercise, started in September 2017 when it should have started in January 2015 at the latest, the regime knows that ZEC will have no chance of producing a verified voters' roll in time. There no limit to the vote rigging shenanigans the regime, with the help of the Israeli company NIKUV, can play as happened in the 2013 elections.
SADC leaders advised Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends not to contest the July 2013 elections without first implementing democratic reforms. "If you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done," SADC leaders had warned at the time.
The warning not to contest flawed elections is just as relevant today as it was back in 2013.
If Mai Mujuru and her Rainbow Coalition partners decide, as they are clearly determined, to contest this year's elections knowing, and have been warned repeatedly, the elections will be rigged; then they cannot complain afterwards that Zanu PF rigged. By insisting in contesting the flawed elections the opposition are, per se, demonstrating their confidence of winning regardless of all the vote rigging shenanigans. Having defied all the advice and logical reasons not to contest, the opposition cannot then complain that Zanu PF rigged the elections just because their strategies to win rigged elections failed.
There is another reason why the opposition keep contesting flawed elections – greed. Zanu PF rigs elections to secure the presidency and the two thirds majority in both parliament and senate but for the process to have any credibility the party knows it must allow the opposition to win the remaining one third of the seats. It is these seat that the opposition are after and they will contest the elections regardless how flawed and illegal the process may be.
The international community and more significantly SADC leaders will declare this year's flawed elections null and void and force Zanu PF to implement the reforms, just as they would have done in 2013, but on one condition – the people of Zimbabwe must show their iron determination to have meaningful free and fair elections. We, Zimbabweans, must heed SADC's advice not to take part in elections with no reforms. We must demonstrate our resolve to free and fair elections by refusing to take Zanu PF's bait of the one third gravy train seats.
The opportunists in the opposition must not just pay lip service to "No reform, no elections!" They must mean it! They must not be allowed to sell-out on the national agenda of free, fair and credible elections for the sake of the scraps of a few gravy train seats.
It is, not just Zanu PF who are denying us our freedoms and basic human rights including the right to free and fair elections; the opportunistic opposition parties are selling us out too. By their continued participation in flawed elections the opposition are giving Zanu PF the excuse to resist implementing meaningful democratic reforms!
Even if Ndiweni's prediction was to come true and Mai Mujuru or Tsvangirai was to win this year's elections; we can be certain neither of them would implement the democratic reforms to ensure future elections are free and fair. The present undemocratic system favours the incumbent ruling party; given that both MDC Alliance and PRC have mediocre leadership, they will only be too glad to take advantage of the system to consolidate their own grip on power.
So, an opposition victory will not guarantee free and fair elections in future. We will have just kicked the can down the road.
Zimbabwe is in this nightmare situation of economic meltdown and political paralysis of military coups, Zanu PF imploding and the opposition in shamble because we are stuck with the corrupt, vote rigging and tyrannical de facto one-party dictatorship. The only way to end the dictatorship is by implementing the democratic reforms designed to dismantle the dictatorship brick by brick and replace it with a democratic system of government.
Nothing, absolutely nothing, of any substance will ever be accomplished until we rid ourselves of the dictatorship and hold free and fair elections! Nothing!
"Mujuru will win if elections are not rigged!" How stupid is that; to keep contesting flawed elections under the pretext they will free and fair and, worse still, whilst blocking any chance of implementing the reforms to stop the vote rigging for dubious selfish gain!
"The taking over of reins (of power) is guaranteed by the fact that PRC, Zimbabwe, SADC, South Africa and the international community can't afford a successive third coup in a row, first Tsvangirai in 2008, Mugabe in 2017; in 2018 (Zimbabwe) Defence Forces have no ace card."
There are far too many ifs for this to ever come true!
"If the military stays out of the elections!" A big slice of President Mnangagwa's coup cabinet is already made up of ex-military people who have first-hand experience in vote rigging. They are the ones who carried out the harassment, beating, raping and even murder of civilians during elections, particularly since 2000. The ex-military people who have just been promoted to join the cabinet are being rewarded for the pivotal role they played in the November 2017 coup that ousted Mugabe. They know they will lose their cabinet post is Zanu PF was to lose the elections. After decades of rigging elections for the benefit of others, it is naïve to think these military thugs are not going to rig elections for their own benefit!
"If there is no rigging!" How stupid is that? Not even one democratic reform has been implemented since the rigged July 2013 elections; so why would Zanu PF, for no apparent reason other than the opposition's wishful thinking, risk losing power by holding free and fair elections?
Indeed, Zanu PF's vote rigging juggernaut is already in overdrive already, the elections are being rigged as we speak! By unduly delaying the voter registration exercise, started in September 2017 when it should have started in January 2015 at the latest, the regime knows that ZEC will have no chance of producing a verified voters' roll in time. There no limit to the vote rigging shenanigans the regime, with the help of the Israeli company NIKUV, can play as happened in the 2013 elections.
SADC leaders advised Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends not to contest the July 2013 elections without first implementing democratic reforms. "If you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done," SADC leaders had warned at the time.
The warning not to contest flawed elections is just as relevant today as it was back in 2013.
If Mai Mujuru and her Rainbow Coalition partners decide, as they are clearly determined, to contest this year's elections knowing, and have been warned repeatedly, the elections will be rigged; then they cannot complain afterwards that Zanu PF rigged. By insisting in contesting the flawed elections the opposition are, per se, demonstrating their confidence of winning regardless of all the vote rigging shenanigans. Having defied all the advice and logical reasons not to contest, the opposition cannot then complain that Zanu PF rigged the elections just because their strategies to win rigged elections failed.
The international community and more significantly SADC leaders will declare this year's flawed elections null and void and force Zanu PF to implement the reforms, just as they would have done in 2013, but on one condition – the people of Zimbabwe must show their iron determination to have meaningful free and fair elections. We, Zimbabweans, must heed SADC's advice not to take part in elections with no reforms. We must demonstrate our resolve to free and fair elections by refusing to take Zanu PF's bait of the one third gravy train seats.
The opportunists in the opposition must not just pay lip service to "No reform, no elections!" They must mean it! They must not be allowed to sell-out on the national agenda of free, fair and credible elections for the sake of the scraps of a few gravy train seats.
It is, not just Zanu PF who are denying us our freedoms and basic human rights including the right to free and fair elections; the opportunistic opposition parties are selling us out too. By their continued participation in flawed elections the opposition are giving Zanu PF the excuse to resist implementing meaningful democratic reforms!
Even if Ndiweni's prediction was to come true and Mai Mujuru or Tsvangirai was to win this year's elections; we can be certain neither of them would implement the democratic reforms to ensure future elections are free and fair. The present undemocratic system favours the incumbent ruling party; given that both MDC Alliance and PRC have mediocre leadership, they will only be too glad to take advantage of the system to consolidate their own grip on power.
So, an opposition victory will not guarantee free and fair elections in future. We will have just kicked the can down the road.
Zimbabwe is in this nightmare situation of economic meltdown and political paralysis of military coups, Zanu PF imploding and the opposition in shamble because we are stuck with the corrupt, vote rigging and tyrannical de facto one-party dictatorship. The only way to end the dictatorship is by implementing the democratic reforms designed to dismantle the dictatorship brick by brick and replace it with a democratic system of government.
Nothing, absolutely nothing, of any substance will ever be accomplished until we rid ourselves of the dictatorship and hold free and fair elections! Nothing!
"Mujuru will win if elections are not rigged!" How stupid is that; to keep contesting flawed elections under the pretext they will free and fair and, worse still, whilst blocking any chance of implementing the reforms to stop the vote rigging for dubious selfish gain!
Source - zsdemocrats.blogspot.co.uk
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