Opinion / Columnist
Voting in Zimbabwe a waste of time
19 Sep 2020 at 06:19hrs | Views
SPEAKER of the Nation-al Assembly, Jacob Mudenda wonders why there is so much voter apathy among voters in Africa with only 35% of populations voting.
As a lawyer, he should be educated enough to work this out for himself and not have to appeal to parliamentarians to tell him.
Or is he playing the usual Zanu-PF games of portraying himself as a democrat when he knows full well that his Party is a dictatorship?
For his edification the electorate all over Africa does not see much benefit from taking time out to cast their vote.
Bearing in mind that poling stations are often a long walk away in a hot sun, it can take a whole day walking to a polling station and standing in a long queue to vote.
At best, when people do vote in a government, the only agenda of those elected is to get fancy cars and scam the system for self enrichment. The welfare of the country and citizens is always low priority.
The norm is to have rigged elections, so it does not matter how you vote, you will not get leaders you want, who have your interests at heart or are capable of running a country.
African ruling parties have perfected many ways of rigging elections.
In our case, Zanu-PF has changed and stuffed ballot box-es. They have used outright violence, horrendous torture, rape and murder on perceived opposition members.
They intimidate voters, offer food and farming inputs handouts just before elections. They tell the electorate that if one does not vote for them, they will not get food handouts. They also deny perceived opposition members food or farming inputs handouts.
Headmen and chiefs are used to threaten the opposition that they will lose their right to their homes. They flout the Electoral Act by buying votes with impunity.
Then there is the use of State agents and Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, which just switch-es the results around for various constituencies and the use of the courts to block any challenges.
Not to mention the still unproven use of high tech ballot papers that move the X. Now the ruling party has resorted to changing who one voted for by changing the name of the opposition party. The current MDC recalls are a total violation of our 2018 vote.
The majority who voted for the opposition voted for MDC Alliance led by Nelson Chamisa and snubbed Thokozani Khupe's party wholesale. She and her breakaway faction certainly do not represent my vote.
Voting in Zimbabwe and most of Africa is a farce and total waste of time.
Mudenda offers as an excuse that democracy took hundreds of years to evolve in the United Kingdom and United States. But Africa evolved very fast when it comes to accumulating vast wealth by our leaders. Wealth that any person on earth could not spend in a life-time. It is sheer greed.
Morality has always been a trade mark of civilization but morality has been thrown to the wind in Africa by our leaders. They unashamedly rape the economy and the hard work that citizens put into it in broad daylight to meet their insatiable desire to get wealthy.
As a lawyer, he should be educated enough to work this out for himself and not have to appeal to parliamentarians to tell him.
Or is he playing the usual Zanu-PF games of portraying himself as a democrat when he knows full well that his Party is a dictatorship?
For his edification the electorate all over Africa does not see much benefit from taking time out to cast their vote.
Bearing in mind that poling stations are often a long walk away in a hot sun, it can take a whole day walking to a polling station and standing in a long queue to vote.
At best, when people do vote in a government, the only agenda of those elected is to get fancy cars and scam the system for self enrichment. The welfare of the country and citizens is always low priority.
The norm is to have rigged elections, so it does not matter how you vote, you will not get leaders you want, who have your interests at heart or are capable of running a country.
African ruling parties have perfected many ways of rigging elections.
In our case, Zanu-PF has changed and stuffed ballot box-es. They have used outright violence, horrendous torture, rape and murder on perceived opposition members.
They intimidate voters, offer food and farming inputs handouts just before elections. They tell the electorate that if one does not vote for them, they will not get food handouts. They also deny perceived opposition members food or farming inputs handouts.
Headmen and chiefs are used to threaten the opposition that they will lose their right to their homes. They flout the Electoral Act by buying votes with impunity.
Then there is the use of State agents and Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, which just switch-es the results around for various constituencies and the use of the courts to block any challenges.
Not to mention the still unproven use of high tech ballot papers that move the X. Now the ruling party has resorted to changing who one voted for by changing the name of the opposition party. The current MDC recalls are a total violation of our 2018 vote.
The majority who voted for the opposition voted for MDC Alliance led by Nelson Chamisa and snubbed Thokozani Khupe's party wholesale. She and her breakaway faction certainly do not represent my vote.
Voting in Zimbabwe and most of Africa is a farce and total waste of time.
Mudenda offers as an excuse that democracy took hundreds of years to evolve in the United Kingdom and United States. But Africa evolved very fast when it comes to accumulating vast wealth by our leaders. Wealth that any person on earth could not spend in a life-time. It is sheer greed.
Morality has always been a trade mark of civilization but morality has been thrown to the wind in Africa by our leaders. They unashamedly rape the economy and the hard work that citizens put into it in broad daylight to meet their insatiable desire to get wealthy.
Source - newsday
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