Opinion / Columnist
'ED is duly elected President!' Who elected him, he rigged, What to do now!
03 Aug 2018 at 14:16hrs | Views
When the late Morgan Tsvangirai and then Nelson Chamisa decided to contest this year's elections with not even one democratic reform in place, the nation's fate was sealed there and then. Zanu PF was going to rig the vote and win the elections.
Last night ZEC chairperson, Justice Priscilla Chigumba, declared "Emmerson Dambudzo (ED) Mnangagwa duly elected President of the Republic of Zimbabwe!" It was just a formality fulfilling a predetermined result in which the voter registration, campaigning were all play-acting to give credibility to an otherwise flawed and illegal process.
ED and his junta won the elections with the predetermined 2/3 plus landslide majority.
What do we do now? Well that is the million dollar question every Zimbabwean with half a brain will be asking themselves now and for months and years to come.
The sham elections and the violence of these last few days have confirmed that Zimbabwe is still a pariah state ruled by ruthless thugs. The thugs' appetite for absolute power and the wealth and influence it brings is insatiable; 8 months ago the stage a military coup to wrestle power from one of their own and today they are celebrating having successfully rigged yet another elections.
Rigging elections is in President Mnangagwa and the junta's blood as they are the ones Mugabe had relied on for all his 37 years in power!
The only thing in President Mnangagwa's mind now is to consolidate his hold on power by purging all Mugabe loyalists and replacing them with his own loyalists. The country's economic meltdown and the heart breaking suffering it is causing will be the last thing on ED's mind.
The most serious consequence of these rigged elections is that President Mnangagwa has, ipso facto, just announce "Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by thugs!" No investor and lender is coming to invest in Zimbabwe because no one wants to do business with a thug!
Zimbabweans can kiss goodbye to any hope of meaningful economic recovery. Without the much needed foreign direct investment to kick start the barely functioning economy recovery is simply impossible. You do not pull yourself up by the bootstraps!
Zimbabwe is the poorest nation in Africa with 3/4 of the population living on US$1.00 a day. Let us just say, the number of those living in abject poverty is set to increase with those at the bottom sinking even deeper into the abyss!
What the people do now?
The people must appeal to the international community not to abandon them to this corrupt and tyrannical regime. These elections were rigged and the people must appeal to the world to say so and not sweep this under the carpet!
"The people have spoken and the voice of the people is the voice of God!" President Mnangagwa will be boasting. All nonsense, of course; with no verified voters' roll, who are these people!
How can these elections be judged free, fair and credible elections when there was no free public media; there was no verified voters' roll; when Zanu PF robbed the nation blind to bankroll its vote-rigging and vote-buying schemes; etc.?
By declaring these elections null and void the international community will have deprive this junta the political legitimacy, the oxygen, and putting it under pressure to accept the need to implement the democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections.
The international election observers MUST declare these elections null and void as a matter of principle, honesty, human dignity and, most important of all, to give the long suffering people of Zimbabwe HOPE. Hope born out of knowing that after 38 years of tyrannical rule someone is finally hearing their cry for help. Hope that this country will one day finally have its first ever free, fair and credible election.
With a concerted effort on the part of the ordinary people of Zimbabwe supported by the good will of the international community this regime of President Mnangagwa can be forced to step aside to allow an interim administration to take over because it is illegitimate.
People should not even waste time MDC's court challenge of these elections; Chamisa and others were warned not to take part in these elections without reforms and they refused to listen. The Court that will hear the MDC appeal is the same Court that ruled last November's military coup was legal! This is just a waste of time.
Plan B is to fight for the international election observers to at least acknowledge that these elections were not free, fair and credible and to make very specific recommendations of what must be done to ensure next elections are free and fair. The fight for free and fair elections must start now; not tomorrow or next year. No, today, now and every day until there are free and fair elections!
Last night ZEC chairperson, Justice Priscilla Chigumba, declared "Emmerson Dambudzo (ED) Mnangagwa duly elected President of the Republic of Zimbabwe!" It was just a formality fulfilling a predetermined result in which the voter registration, campaigning were all play-acting to give credibility to an otherwise flawed and illegal process.
ED and his junta won the elections with the predetermined 2/3 plus landslide majority.
What do we do now? Well that is the million dollar question every Zimbabwean with half a brain will be asking themselves now and for months and years to come.
The sham elections and the violence of these last few days have confirmed that Zimbabwe is still a pariah state ruled by ruthless thugs. The thugs' appetite for absolute power and the wealth and influence it brings is insatiable; 8 months ago the stage a military coup to wrestle power from one of their own and today they are celebrating having successfully rigged yet another elections.
Rigging elections is in President Mnangagwa and the junta's blood as they are the ones Mugabe had relied on for all his 37 years in power!
The only thing in President Mnangagwa's mind now is to consolidate his hold on power by purging all Mugabe loyalists and replacing them with his own loyalists. The country's economic meltdown and the heart breaking suffering it is causing will be the last thing on ED's mind.
The most serious consequence of these rigged elections is that President Mnangagwa has, ipso facto, just announce "Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by thugs!" No investor and lender is coming to invest in Zimbabwe because no one wants to do business with a thug!
Zimbabweans can kiss goodbye to any hope of meaningful economic recovery. Without the much needed foreign direct investment to kick start the barely functioning economy recovery is simply impossible. You do not pull yourself up by the bootstraps!
What the people do now?
The people must appeal to the international community not to abandon them to this corrupt and tyrannical regime. These elections were rigged and the people must appeal to the world to say so and not sweep this under the carpet!
"The people have spoken and the voice of the people is the voice of God!" President Mnangagwa will be boasting. All nonsense, of course; with no verified voters' roll, who are these people!
How can these elections be judged free, fair and credible elections when there was no free public media; there was no verified voters' roll; when Zanu PF robbed the nation blind to bankroll its vote-rigging and vote-buying schemes; etc.?
By declaring these elections null and void the international community will have deprive this junta the political legitimacy, the oxygen, and putting it under pressure to accept the need to implement the democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections.
The international election observers MUST declare these elections null and void as a matter of principle, honesty, human dignity and, most important of all, to give the long suffering people of Zimbabwe HOPE. Hope born out of knowing that after 38 years of tyrannical rule someone is finally hearing their cry for help. Hope that this country will one day finally have its first ever free, fair and credible election.
With a concerted effort on the part of the ordinary people of Zimbabwe supported by the good will of the international community this regime of President Mnangagwa can be forced to step aside to allow an interim administration to take over because it is illegitimate.
People should not even waste time MDC's court challenge of these elections; Chamisa and others were warned not to take part in these elections without reforms and they refused to listen. The Court that will hear the MDC appeal is the same Court that ruled last November's military coup was legal! This is just a waste of time.
Plan B is to fight for the international election observers to at least acknowledge that these elections were not free, fair and credible and to make very specific recommendations of what must be done to ensure next elections are free and fair. The fight for free and fair elections must start now; not tomorrow or next year. No, today, now and every day until there are free and fair elections!
Source - zsdemocrats.blogspot.co.uk
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