Opinion / Columnist
Zanu PF rigged these elections and 'MDC are celebrating election victory!' - that says it all
10 Aug 2018 at 15:53hrs | Views
Guess who is celebrating election victory? MDC Alliance; Welshman Ncube and Tendai Biti and their respective MDC and PDP followers have good reason to be celebrating, the Alliance saved them from sinking into the abyss!
"The MDC National Organising Secretary, Amos Chibaya yesterday met with the Harare Provincial Council at the party head office in Harare to map way forward in the face of an MDC Alliance win in the just ended harmonized election," reported Bulawayo 24 News.
"Chibaya updated the Council on the route the party was taking towards bringing back legitimacy to the electoral processes in Zimbabwe.
"He encouraged them to remain calm and to prepare for celebrations because the MDC Alliance won the election."
MDC Alliance was God send as far as both MDC and PDP were concerned because the two parties' chances of winning an seats in these elections improved significantly by not having to compete against Zanu PF and Chamisa led MDC-T candidates too. Both Ncube and Biti are celebrating that they had a share of the scraps the Alliance won.
None of the MDC Alliance leaders, Ncube, Biti, Chamisa, etc., were ever under any illusion the Alliance would win these elections; they knew that with no reforms in place there was nothing to stop Zanu PF blatantly rigging the elections to secure yet another landslide victory. The Alliance leaders also knew that Zanu PF will be dishing out a few gravy train seats to entice the opposition to contest the flawed and illegal elections. It was these bait seats that they were after and Ncube and Biti swallowed their pride to join Morgan Tsvangirai's big-tent, MDC Alliance, just to make sure they has a share of the scraps.
International election observers have already highlighted some of the glaring irregularities in these elections. There was no free public media. ZEC failed to register 3 million or so Zimbabweans in the diaspora; a very significant number given 5.6 voted last month. Zanu PF robbed the nation blind to bankroll its vote rigging schemes. Probably the most shocking of all was ZEC's failure to produce clean and verified voters' roll. How anyone, anyone with half a brain would agree to go into the elections with no verified voters' roll beggars belief.
"Tsvangirai made the stupid mistake of going into the 2013 elections with no voters' roll. I will not make the same mistake!" Nelson Chamisa announced.
Lo behold, MDC Alliance went into these elections with no clean and verified voters' roll.
For the last five years the nation had bought Biometric equipment and gone through all the motion of producing a biometric voting system at great expense. Coming voting day, ZEC used a printed voters' roll and none of the biometric equipment were on sight. Not even one of the opposition candidates even asked ZEC to explain what was going on!
There are two things all the international observers can say about these elections:
1) The elections were not free, fair and credible. How can they be, when no one could produce something as basic as a voters' roll. The voters' roll that was made public had numerous errors was not the same as that used on voting day, the latter had photographs.
2) Why Zimbabwe's opposition agreed to take part in such a flawed and illegal process left many international election observers puzzled. There is no doubt that many have been forced to ignore the glaring vote rigging and pass the elections as acceptable. "If Zimbabwe's opposition are happy with the flawed and illegal process; why should they, outsiders interfere!" they reasoned. A fallacious excuse, and a feeble one at that, for failing to do the honourable thing – declaring the election a fraud and a mockery to democracy.
The ruling party and the opposition candidates and parties are the contestants in the elections but they are not the only stakeholders in these national elections. Every Zimbabwean, in the country or abroad, has a right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country. By failing to hold free, fair and credible elections the ruling part with the connivance of the opposition are denying the people of Zimbabwe their basic and fundamental right. It is downright criminal that some of the international election observers should see it fit to collude with the country's corrupt and incompetent politicians at the expense of the long suffering majority.
Zanu PF will be celebrating another landslide elections victory and that the party had once again successfully lured the opposition to take part in the flawed and illegal election process giving it the modicum of democratic legitimacy.
After 38 years of rigged elections, Zanu PF leaders like President Mnangagwa and his predecessor, Robert Mugabe, are particularly impressed with how they have entrapped the opposition making them forget the all-important democratic reforms. For the last week, the Zanu PF tyrants has unleashed its thugs with instruction of shot to kill to stop all street protest. This was to remind the people the regime's reputation as a murderous one is well earned. This is the only way the regime has managed to stop the masses revolting in the face of the unprecedented economic meltdown that has left 75% of the population living on US$1.00 or less a day.
Now that it is certain the country's economic recovery will never happen, investors do not do business in pariah states ruled by vote rigging thugs; another five more years of this economic hardships will try the patience of the country's impoverished masses to the limit. Whether the regime's use of brute force will still be enough to stop the people revolting; time will tell.
MDC leaders have occupied political centre stage for nearly 20 years now on the promise to bring democratic change. They have failed to bring about even one democratic change although they had many wasted golden opportunities to do so. Ever since they sold out during the GNU, they have since settled for being Zanu PF's acolytes in return for a few gravy train seats.
MDC Alliance leaders like Tendai Biti will be celebrating winning one of the bait seats; he will not care that the elections were rigged much less that it is the ordinary Zimbabweans who will pay dearly for yet another rigged elections!
"The MDC National Organising Secretary, Amos Chibaya yesterday met with the Harare Provincial Council at the party head office in Harare to map way forward in the face of an MDC Alliance win in the just ended harmonized election," reported Bulawayo 24 News.
"Chibaya updated the Council on the route the party was taking towards bringing back legitimacy to the electoral processes in Zimbabwe.
"He encouraged them to remain calm and to prepare for celebrations because the MDC Alliance won the election."
MDC Alliance was God send as far as both MDC and PDP were concerned because the two parties' chances of winning an seats in these elections improved significantly by not having to compete against Zanu PF and Chamisa led MDC-T candidates too. Both Ncube and Biti are celebrating that they had a share of the scraps the Alliance won.
None of the MDC Alliance leaders, Ncube, Biti, Chamisa, etc., were ever under any illusion the Alliance would win these elections; they knew that with no reforms in place there was nothing to stop Zanu PF blatantly rigging the elections to secure yet another landslide victory. The Alliance leaders also knew that Zanu PF will be dishing out a few gravy train seats to entice the opposition to contest the flawed and illegal elections. It was these bait seats that they were after and Ncube and Biti swallowed their pride to join Morgan Tsvangirai's big-tent, MDC Alliance, just to make sure they has a share of the scraps.
International election observers have already highlighted some of the glaring irregularities in these elections. There was no free public media. ZEC failed to register 3 million or so Zimbabweans in the diaspora; a very significant number given 5.6 voted last month. Zanu PF robbed the nation blind to bankroll its vote rigging schemes. Probably the most shocking of all was ZEC's failure to produce clean and verified voters' roll. How anyone, anyone with half a brain would agree to go into the elections with no verified voters' roll beggars belief.
"Tsvangirai made the stupid mistake of going into the 2013 elections with no voters' roll. I will not make the same mistake!" Nelson Chamisa announced.
Lo behold, MDC Alliance went into these elections with no clean and verified voters' roll.
There are two things all the international observers can say about these elections:
1) The elections were not free, fair and credible. How can they be, when no one could produce something as basic as a voters' roll. The voters' roll that was made public had numerous errors was not the same as that used on voting day, the latter had photographs.
2) Why Zimbabwe's opposition agreed to take part in such a flawed and illegal process left many international election observers puzzled. There is no doubt that many have been forced to ignore the glaring vote rigging and pass the elections as acceptable. "If Zimbabwe's opposition are happy with the flawed and illegal process; why should they, outsiders interfere!" they reasoned. A fallacious excuse, and a feeble one at that, for failing to do the honourable thing – declaring the election a fraud and a mockery to democracy.
The ruling party and the opposition candidates and parties are the contestants in the elections but they are not the only stakeholders in these national elections. Every Zimbabwean, in the country or abroad, has a right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country. By failing to hold free, fair and credible elections the ruling part with the connivance of the opposition are denying the people of Zimbabwe their basic and fundamental right. It is downright criminal that some of the international election observers should see it fit to collude with the country's corrupt and incompetent politicians at the expense of the long suffering majority.
Zanu PF will be celebrating another landslide elections victory and that the party had once again successfully lured the opposition to take part in the flawed and illegal election process giving it the modicum of democratic legitimacy.
After 38 years of rigged elections, Zanu PF leaders like President Mnangagwa and his predecessor, Robert Mugabe, are particularly impressed with how they have entrapped the opposition making them forget the all-important democratic reforms. For the last week, the Zanu PF tyrants has unleashed its thugs with instruction of shot to kill to stop all street protest. This was to remind the people the regime's reputation as a murderous one is well earned. This is the only way the regime has managed to stop the masses revolting in the face of the unprecedented economic meltdown that has left 75% of the population living on US$1.00 or less a day.
Now that it is certain the country's economic recovery will never happen, investors do not do business in pariah states ruled by vote rigging thugs; another five more years of this economic hardships will try the patience of the country's impoverished masses to the limit. Whether the regime's use of brute force will still be enough to stop the people revolting; time will tell.
MDC leaders have occupied political centre stage for nearly 20 years now on the promise to bring democratic change. They have failed to bring about even one democratic change although they had many wasted golden opportunities to do so. Ever since they sold out during the GNU, they have since settled for being Zanu PF's acolytes in return for a few gravy train seats.
MDC Alliance leaders like Tendai Biti will be celebrating winning one of the bait seats; he will not care that the elections were rigged much less that it is the ordinary Zimbabweans who will pay dearly for yet another rigged elections!
Source - zsdemocrats.blogspot.co.uk
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