Zanu PF rigged 2018 elections and is, ipso facto, illegitimate - condemn EU backdoor legitimacy

Zimbabwe and the EU have started re-engagement talks which the Zimbabwe government hopes will culminate in the EU, IMF, WB and other international lenders bankrolling Zimbabwe's economic programme, followed by a flood of investors.

"At the start of the open-ended talks between diplomats and officials in Harare, EU Zimbabwe delegation head Timo Olkkonen said they would discuss issues including economic development, trade, investment, rights, rule of law and good governance," reported Spotlight Zimbabwe.

"The government has already signed up to an IMF monitoring programme where it has committed to political and economic reforms in a bid to set a track record of fiscal discipline that could earn it debt forgiveness and future financing."

These talks are only taking place now, 18 months since Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF coup junta, seized power and promised to end corruption and hold free, fair and credible elections. Good governance is still on the agenda because Mnangagwa and the junta did not honour their promises of ending corruption, holding free and fair elections, etc.

The EU had a 142-person strong Election Observer Mission in Zimbabwe and team did not mince its words as to its findings. "The electoral commission lacked full independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner. The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability," stated the final report.

"Finally, the restrictions on political freedoms, the excessive use of force by security forces and abuses of human rights in the post-election period undermined the corresponding positive aspects during the pre-election campaign. As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards."

So which part of "Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards" does Ambassador Timo Olkkonen and his delegates failing to understand? Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF junta blatantly rigged last year's elections, the regime has no mandate to govern the country, it is illegitimate and ipso facto must step down.

Why is the EU granting an illegitimate Zanu PF regime legitimacy as long as it promises to implement democratic reforms? We know the regime had the golden opportunities to implement the reforms during the GNU, since the November 2017 coup, etc. but has wasted these opportunities.

If Zanu PF is allowed to stay in power till 2023, the party will rig that year's elections regardless of any promises made to implement reforms. After 39 years of rigged elections and broken promises it is insane to expect anything else from the regime.

It is no secret that there are some nations in the EU, notably Belgium, who have been itching to lay their hands on Zimbabwe's diamonds and do not care about Zimbabwe's bad governance and the suffering and deaths it has caused. There are many Zimbabweans and none-Zimbabweans who have sacrificed careers, life and limbs in the fight for meaningful democratic change in Zimbabwe.

This EU re-engagement will gratify the greed of the Belgians but at the expense of undermining all the sacrifice and hard work of those seeking democratic change in Zimbabwe. It will be criminal negligence to allow such blatant betray of the long-suffering masses of Zimbabwe to go unopposed!

Zanu PF blatantly rigged last year's elections, the regime is illegitimate and for the EU to re-engage the regime it is tantamount to granting it legitimacy by the backdoor! Zimbabwe has paid dearly for having rewarded Zanu PF with power repeatedly after rigging elections. The nation is set on stamping out this foolishness and the last thing we want is outsiders imposing the fin their own country!