Chamisa told to accept defeat

A desperate decision by the embattled MDC-Alliance to impose its leader Mr Nelson Chamisa as national "president" after his defeat by President Mnangagwa is not only illegal and contemptuous of the court and people of Zimbabwe but also a scandalous political stunt aimed at inciting the public, political analysts have said.

The alliance is a loose coalition of fringe political parties that suffered a double defeat at the hands of President Mnangagwa in the July 30 harmonised elections and in the Constitutional Court challenge by Mr Chamisa.

On Wednesday, leaders of the shaky alliance met in Harare under the banner of the MDC-T national council where they made a purported resolution to the effect that Mr Chamisa won the presidential polls with 2,6 million votes. There was no explanation of where the figure was extracted from.

They also said they were organising "thank you" rallies for Mr Chamisa starting this weekend where they would consult their supporters on the way forward following their leader's Concourt defeat.

Analysts who spoke to The Herald yesterday said the move was nothing short of political posturing aimed at inciting violence in the country.

Mr Richard Mahomva said: "This theatric stance to impose Chamisa as a de facto president of Zimbabwe has undercurrencies of inciting structured despondency as part of a pre-election threat to make Zimbabwe ungovernable.

"This exposes the MDC-A's seemingly hidden hand in the orchestration of the August 1, 2018 riots. In the same manner, this further indicates the MDC-A's subtle propensity to defeating any post-election peace-building efforts even after President Mnangagwa has set up a commission of inquiry to address that matter.

"With the growing popular fatigue towards Chamisa's antics and the need to move on, this move would not gain national traction and support. Zimbabweans have gone past the election euphoria. Now people want to move on."

Mr Mahomva continued: "The decision by the MDC-Alliance's national council to declare Chamisa as winner of the 30 July 2018 is not only an illegal and a contemptuous reciprocation to the Concourt ruling.

"The move is evident of his (failure) to embrace electoral loss. This substantiates Chamisa's disregard of the binding democratic tenets that the election provided. As such, this undermines the popular will of the law-inclined, democratic and peace-loving people of Zimbabwe," he said.

"This position by the MDC-A serves to represent a maturation of Chamisa's illicit access to power which stems from the time he imposed himself as leader of the MDC-T after Tsvangirai's death.

"It's evident that the national council of the MDC-A is a manipulated organ to legitimise the irrationality of Chamisa's power amassing spree in both his party and in national politics."

Another analyst, Mr Godwine Mureriwa, said: "Since the MDC's formation, the only electoral process in which they accepted the outcome was the 2000 referendum where they vigorously but un-informedly campaigned for a NO vote against the Chidyausiku Constitution.

"Every other election thereafter, because they have lost, they allege rigging. Democracy does not entail rule of a minority, but the majority. It is naive for Chamisa to think that mobocracy or seeking futile legal remedies outside Zimbabwe's borders will reverse the election results. He is notoriously building castles in the air. Instead, he should spend energy and resources on preparations for 2023.

"ZANU-PF fully understands the need to deliver on its promises to revive the economy. MDC's reliance on protests is outmoded. People want to move forward and progressive countries across the world are ready to do business with Zimbabwe."

Another political analyst, Mr Tafadzwa Mugwadi, said there was no justification for a loser to call for thank you rallies.

"Rather, the man must sober up and come to terms with defeat and reorganise his party if ever he still has control over it," he said.

"Besides being desperately incitive, the rallies are not only retrogressive, but shows that Chamisa is still captured in the election season which is just but behind us.

"One would expect the winner, President Mnangagwa, to do those rallies in giving homage to the populace and uniting the people for development. In any case, polarising rallies by losers are a threat to unity and the President's call to put politics behind and focus on economics." Mr Mugwadi said it was "clearly childish and nonsensical for the MDC to recognise Chamisa as the winner, yet it's clear he lost".

"Such amateurish political shenanigans smack of political adolescence and immaturity which must never have a place in our politics," he said.

"The institutionalisation of the Commission to Inquiry on the disturbances of 1 August shows the President's decisiveness and political will to heal the nation after the hectic and crazy election season. "Any spanner throwing antics must be condemned by Zimbabweans as uncivilised and anti- people."