Tsvangirai thinks he is the only one God-ordained to challenge Mugabe

I have come to a point where I am extremely tired by an opposition that feels entitled to my vote.

I am exhausted by people who think they deserve my vote simply because they have been in the so-called trenches for eons.

I am tired of people, who for no reason, think they are the only ones God-ordained to challenge Zanu-PF and President Robert Mugabe.

I am tired of this nonsense called splitting votes, because to me it just does not make sense. How is my vote split because I have decided to vote for my favourite candidate?

Just a reminder; that your candidate is popular with you and your circles does not mean I should like him or her or better still that does not mean they have earned my vote.

This exhaustion long built up in me, but it reached a crescendo last week, when Fadzayi Mahere and Nkosana Moyo announced they would stand in next year's elections.

I was disappointed when senior MDC-T officials, without even questioning what Mahere and Moyo stand for, immediately accused them of splitting the vote.

We have not even had a voter registration exercise and others have the temerity to speak of splitting votes.

It's as if they believe they are entitled to a certain quota of the vote and hate anyone who threatens it, which is pitiable.

Any other opposition candidate, who stands in Zimbabwean elections, who is not from MDC-T, is immediately accused of either splitting votes or being a Zanu-PF project, with little or no questioning of what that person brings.

MDC-T may be the most popular opposition party at the moment, but simply being that does not entitle them to my vote, they, like anyone else, should work for me to vote for them.

That they have been in the trenches for donkey years fighting Mugabe is simply not good enough to earn my vote, but rather they should fight for it by placing attractive policies on the table and showing how different they will be from the incumbent.

That is what democracy is all about, a marketplace of ideologies, where we go to the ballot and choose what we think will work for us.

This doctrine of splitting votes is extremely draining and unhelpful.

How come Zanu-PF has never accused Joice Mujuru, Edgar Tekere, nor anyone for that matter, of splitting the ruling party's votes, when these people left the party?

This cry-baby attitude is quite discouraging and pushes people away.

Whatever the MDC-T think of Mahere and Moyo, the party should be confident enough to say these two will not touch their voters, who are faithful to the party, because it has the best policies.

The party should say: "We welcome these two to the opposition terrain, but they have their work cut out for them because we are going to fight for every vote possible and we will not treat them with political kids' gloves."

That there are so many political parties is also an indictment on the more established parties, because it shows that there are people who are not convinced by these organisations and are still searching for a political home.

Each time an election draws by, I get this feeling that opposition parties are more determined to outdo each other rather than fighting and defeating Zanu-PF.

It's as is if these parties are all squaring up to become the official opposition rather than to defeat Zanu-PF and have become career opposition leaders.

In a recent instalment, I gave an example of Simba Makoni, who got a game-changing 8% of the vote in 2008, who was also accused of splitting the opposition's vote.

Has the MDC-T ever sat down and thought that the people who voted Makoni are people who were disillusioned with voting for Morgan Tsvangirai and were looking for an alternative?

Maybe the MDC-T's policies are not as enticing as the party thinks they are and that's why a significant percentage of the population voted for Makoni.

A message to MDC-T is that you do not own anyone's vote, except maybe your members', and people are going to choose a candidate they think deserves their vote, whether it's Tsvangirai or anyone else, and they have a perfectly legitimate right to do so.

I am tired of MDC-T's whinging, I am tired of their entitlement and, above all, I am tired of being taken for granted as a voter.

If I had my way, I would rather the opposition contested the election as a coalition, but if not, then I want to vote for someone with spine, not for a party that sees conspiracy theories at every turn and, where paranoia reigns supreme.

My vote is my choice and nobody owns it to a point where they will speak of splitting it.

As I have said, anyone who wants my vote will have to work for it and since I am not encumbered by being a member of any political party, I will vote for the person I think has the best policies.

That person may lose the elections, or have only one vote – from me — but I will live with a clear conscience that I voted for someone I thought deserved my vote.

So, to opposition parties, no one has my vote and no one is guaranteed it. I will decide when voting draws near, so do not over-exert yourself preaching about splitting of votes.

Next time MDC-T officials think of talking about vote-splitting, they should be reminded that they come across as insecure and paranoid moaners.