Opinion / Columnist
Zimbabweans are dying like flies whilst Mugabe wastes time fiddling with ZEC reforms
19 Oct 2015 at 21:53hrs | Views
"The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) has admitted that the polling station-based voters' roll trial-run recently conducted in Marondera exposed glaring logistical challenges which could stop plans to roll it out to all parts of the country ahead of the 2018 general elections," reported Newsday.
The only real surprise here is that ZEC officials admitted their proposed solution to end Zimbabwe's political culture of rigged elections would not work. The normal thing for ZEC would have been to praise the trial-run to the heavens and make a big song and dance about this regime is now totally committed to ensuring the next elections are free, fair and credible.
As long as Mugabe and Zanu PF retain their octopus reach and control of all state institution like the Police, CIO, Army, Public Media, Judiciary, ZEC, etc., etc. there will never be free, fair and credible elections in Zimbabwe. After each rigged elections this regime has always promised to change the conduct of elections to address the opposition and critics' complains and all it has ever done is tinker around with the structure of this institution or the process without changing anything. Indeed some of the tinkering was to hide its latest vote rigging tricks!
In Mugabe's 35 years in power he has rarely used the same vote rigging dirty trick twice; he has always tweaked the system and left his challengers, particularly the simpletons Tsvangirai and Mujuru, scratching their heads in confusion. For example, it was not until noon of elections-day, 31st July 2013, that it finally dawned on Tsvangirai that the elections had been rigged; everyone else had seen this coming and had even warned the MDC leaders but, of course, they never listen to anyone.
As a nation we were very slow off the mark in 1980 and thus allowed Mugabe to establish this Zanu PF dictatorship that has brought nothing but political paralysis and economic ruin. We had the opportunity to end the Zanu PF dictatorship during the GNU but, once again, we were slow off the mark and failed to realize that Tsvangirai and his MDC friends were too corrupt and incompetent to implement all the 2008 GPA democratic reforms, which every agreed were a necessary pre-requisite to meaning change and ending Zanu PF's octopus dictatorial reach and control of state institutions.
We were, once again, slow off the mark throughout the GNU years; MDC failed to get even one democratic reform implemented after five years in the GNU. Not one! We should have seen MDC leaders for the corrupt and incompetent individuals they are. Since the July 2013 rigged elections Tsvangirai has been pushing Zanu PF to implement wishy-washy electoral law reforms. He has insists that he "will force" Zanu PF to implement these electoral law reforms BEFORE the 2018 elections. We have wasted two years and have less than three years before the 2018 elections and still not even one of these reforms has been implemented. And still Tsvangirai maintains the reforms will be implemented on time. This is just the usual arrogance we have learnt to expect from him.
Tsvangirai insisted the 2013 elections would be free, fair and credible but, of course, we now know they were not; that is now a historic fact!
But more significantly, Veritas, a Zimbabwean think tank on legal matters, had examined the electoral law amendments before parliament and concluded that they are "inadequate and incomplete" and thus will never deliver the free and fair elections even if they were implemented.
The urgency of implementing the reform comes from the fact that the nation needs political reforms first before we can tackle the nation's economic reforms necessary to end the country's abject poverty brought on by worsening economic meltdown. Poverty is killing our people like flies cause in a fly-trap!
Zimbabwe's extended family system of parents, brothers, sisters, uncles, cousins all chipping in to help a relative with paying school fees, buying food, etc. has served this nation well so far. The economic reality of 90% plus of the people out of work has left the overwhelming majority of the people so impoverish extend family system has now broken down because everyone is poor and in desperate need for help to consider helping someone else.
There is poverty in which one if forced to make do with one meal a day instead of the three, for example. The abject poverty in Zimbabwe today has now reached the level where millions have been forced cut back on even the bear essential to keep body and soul like food and medicine. Zimbabwe's unemployment has remained a nauseating 80% plus for the last decade and the result years of poverty has taken a heavy toll on this nation; millions are economically impoverished, mentally and physically exhausted and weak and venerable to disease and illness.
Zimbabweans are dying of curable diseases like high blood pressure and flue because the country's health delivery system has, like most other things, collapsed and many are too poor to pay for the poor service and the medicine. Zimbabweans are dying like flies in a fly-trap; abject poverty is fast becoming the country's worst killer more potent that AIDS and Malaria put together!
There is no known vaccine against abject poverty and the only known cure by ending the country's economic meltdown fuelling the poverty.
This Mugabe regime has not only dragged the nation into this economic hell but it has stubbornly refused to carry out the necessary economic reforms to end the mismanagement, corruption and lawlessness at the heart of the country's spectacular economic decline. Worse still the regime has created this de facto one party dictatorship which has meant that although the people have known the regime has failed them and have been desperate to remove the regime the nation has completely failed to do so for the last 35 years now.
The only legal and peaceful way to force this Mugabe regime to give up political power is by demanding the implementation of all the 2008 GPA democratic reforms.
We must reject MDC's electoral law reforms which we now know are "inadequate and incomplete" and we must also reject Zanu PF's endless tinkering with the voters' roll, electoral process, etc. because neither of these will end Zanu PF's octopus reach and control of the state institutions. We must demand the implementation of all the 2008 GPA reforms as the pre-requisite and guarantee for free, fair and credible elections.
The worsening economic meltdown and the increasing human misery and deaths it is causing will concentrate the nation's minds on political reforms because is national tragedy is socially and politically unsustainable. By rigging the elections, Mugabe has resisted regime change for 35 years but now the cup is full to overflowing; this nation has paid dearly in money and human suffered and lives to gratify his insatiable appetite for absolute power and wealth, the price going forward has now soared far beyond even what this subservient nation such as we are can endure without risking the complete breakdown of our every humanity!!
The only real surprise here is that ZEC officials admitted their proposed solution to end Zimbabwe's political culture of rigged elections would not work. The normal thing for ZEC would have been to praise the trial-run to the heavens and make a big song and dance about this regime is now totally committed to ensuring the next elections are free, fair and credible.
As long as Mugabe and Zanu PF retain their octopus reach and control of all state institution like the Police, CIO, Army, Public Media, Judiciary, ZEC, etc., etc. there will never be free, fair and credible elections in Zimbabwe. After each rigged elections this regime has always promised to change the conduct of elections to address the opposition and critics' complains and all it has ever done is tinker around with the structure of this institution or the process without changing anything. Indeed some of the tinkering was to hide its latest vote rigging tricks!
In Mugabe's 35 years in power he has rarely used the same vote rigging dirty trick twice; he has always tweaked the system and left his challengers, particularly the simpletons Tsvangirai and Mujuru, scratching their heads in confusion. For example, it was not until noon of elections-day, 31st July 2013, that it finally dawned on Tsvangirai that the elections had been rigged; everyone else had seen this coming and had even warned the MDC leaders but, of course, they never listen to anyone.
As a nation we were very slow off the mark in 1980 and thus allowed Mugabe to establish this Zanu PF dictatorship that has brought nothing but political paralysis and economic ruin. We had the opportunity to end the Zanu PF dictatorship during the GNU but, once again, we were slow off the mark and failed to realize that Tsvangirai and his MDC friends were too corrupt and incompetent to implement all the 2008 GPA democratic reforms, which every agreed were a necessary pre-requisite to meaning change and ending Zanu PF's octopus dictatorial reach and control of state institutions.
We were, once again, slow off the mark throughout the GNU years; MDC failed to get even one democratic reform implemented after five years in the GNU. Not one! We should have seen MDC leaders for the corrupt and incompetent individuals they are. Since the July 2013 rigged elections Tsvangirai has been pushing Zanu PF to implement wishy-washy electoral law reforms. He has insists that he "will force" Zanu PF to implement these electoral law reforms BEFORE the 2018 elections. We have wasted two years and have less than three years before the 2018 elections and still not even one of these reforms has been implemented. And still Tsvangirai maintains the reforms will be implemented on time. This is just the usual arrogance we have learnt to expect from him.
Tsvangirai insisted the 2013 elections would be free, fair and credible but, of course, we now know they were not; that is now a historic fact!
But more significantly, Veritas, a Zimbabwean think tank on legal matters, had examined the electoral law amendments before parliament and concluded that they are "inadequate and incomplete" and thus will never deliver the free and fair elections even if they were implemented.
Zimbabwe's extended family system of parents, brothers, sisters, uncles, cousins all chipping in to help a relative with paying school fees, buying food, etc. has served this nation well so far. The economic reality of 90% plus of the people out of work has left the overwhelming majority of the people so impoverish extend family system has now broken down because everyone is poor and in desperate need for help to consider helping someone else.
There is poverty in which one if forced to make do with one meal a day instead of the three, for example. The abject poverty in Zimbabwe today has now reached the level where millions have been forced cut back on even the bear essential to keep body and soul like food and medicine. Zimbabwe's unemployment has remained a nauseating 80% plus for the last decade and the result years of poverty has taken a heavy toll on this nation; millions are economically impoverished, mentally and physically exhausted and weak and venerable to disease and illness.
Zimbabweans are dying of curable diseases like high blood pressure and flue because the country's health delivery system has, like most other things, collapsed and many are too poor to pay for the poor service and the medicine. Zimbabweans are dying like flies in a fly-trap; abject poverty is fast becoming the country's worst killer more potent that AIDS and Malaria put together!
There is no known vaccine against abject poverty and the only known cure by ending the country's economic meltdown fuelling the poverty.
This Mugabe regime has not only dragged the nation into this economic hell but it has stubbornly refused to carry out the necessary economic reforms to end the mismanagement, corruption and lawlessness at the heart of the country's spectacular economic decline. Worse still the regime has created this de facto one party dictatorship which has meant that although the people have known the regime has failed them and have been desperate to remove the regime the nation has completely failed to do so for the last 35 years now.
The only legal and peaceful way to force this Mugabe regime to give up political power is by demanding the implementation of all the 2008 GPA democratic reforms.
We must reject MDC's electoral law reforms which we now know are "inadequate and incomplete" and we must also reject Zanu PF's endless tinkering with the voters' roll, electoral process, etc. because neither of these will end Zanu PF's octopus reach and control of the state institutions. We must demand the implementation of all the 2008 GPA reforms as the pre-requisite and guarantee for free, fair and credible elections.
The worsening economic meltdown and the increasing human misery and deaths it is causing will concentrate the nation's minds on political reforms because is national tragedy is socially and politically unsustainable. By rigging the elections, Mugabe has resisted regime change for 35 years but now the cup is full to overflowing; this nation has paid dearly in money and human suffered and lives to gratify his insatiable appetite for absolute power and wealth, the price going forward has now soared far beyond even what this subservient nation such as we are can endure without risking the complete breakdown of our every humanity!!
Source - Wilbert Mukori
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