No 'hard evidence' to prove 2013 elections were rigged, say Mavhinga - denier's mind-set

Those who choose to deny the past and often forced to relive the same mistake.

"In the years and decades after World War II, the German society - while overwhelming rejecting Nazi ideology after the traumatic experience of the war - chose not to deal with the specific Nazi crimes too intensively," wrote Max Sollner in an article entitled "Why Holocaust denial is a crime in Germany"

"Generally speaking, the Holocaust, or what the Nazis had euphemistically called ‘the final solution', was a taboo topic in West Germany in the 1950ies and 60ies. It was rarely talked about publicly and not taught in school extensively like today. In that atmosphere, trivialization and belittling of Nazi crimes could fester.

"Therefore, it comes as no surprise that in 1960 the first law against Holocaust denial was passed as a reaction to the re-emerging anti-Semitism in German society: On Christmas Eve 1959, just a couple of months after its widely celebrated re-opening, the synagogue in Cologne was besmeared with swastikas and anti-Semitic slurs by two members of a right-extremist party."

Today, the outright denial and even the trivialization of the Holocaust in public is a federal crime, punishable by up to 5 years in prison. There are similar laws in other European countries.

There are three very important things the passing of the law denying the Holocaust:

1) Scientific facts such as the fact that the earth is just another planet going around the sun and not the centre round which all others revolve or that humanity is a creature of evolution and not "made in the image of God" have been hard to swallow. But no amount of denying these fact have changed the reality one iota. Indeed, by accepting reality, truth and facts and not deny them to message our vanity mankind has progress in leaps and bounds.

If something happened, it happened it must be acknowledged as a historic fact, reality and truth.

2) It is offensive to deny and/or trivialize someone else's suffering; a common enough bully tactic.

3) Those who fail to learn from history are destined to repeat the same mistakes.

"The mind-set of the deniers was seen as the foundational myth of new forms of anti-Semitism that focused on the state of Israel and its alleged moral blackmailing of the German state based on the – in the eyes of these anti-Semites – ‘historical lie' of the Holocaust," wrote Sollner.

In Zimbabwe, we are caught in our own denial of historic facts and, like all deniers of facts, truth and reality, are paying dearly for our folly by reliving the same mistake over and over again. Many Zimbabweans are in denial that Zanu PF has been rigging elections!

"Beyond a coalition, the most important thing to focus on is electoral reforms to level the electoral field," commented Dewa Mavhinga in a recent Daily News report.

"If the opposition fails to secure electoral reforms then they must ensure they have the tools and mechanisms to monitor, track, and expose electoral rigging for the world to see and be convinced beyond a shadow of doubt. It has proven difficult to demonstrate that the 2013 elections were rigged in the absence of hard evidence to back up those claims."

The Daily News referred to Mr Mavhinga as "(human) rights and political expert". He is very confused expert, to say the least!

It is easier to establish that Zanu PF rigged the July 2013 elections as a historic fact by looking at the evidence of what happened that year in the context of what happened in the 2008 elections because the two are a continuation of the same electoral process. There is all the "hard evidence" even Mr Mavhinga would not deny that Zanu PF blatantly rigged the 2008 election.

The regime "cooked" the March 2008 vote to deny Tsvangirai the outright victory to force the run-off. In the run-off, the regime then employed wanton violence to force the electorate to force for Mugabe.

The regime "declared war on the people," complained Tsvangirai as he announced his withdrawal from the race.

Mugabe declared himself the winner of the presidential run-off. No one; not even the SADC or AU election observers, renowned for giving a thumbs-up to some dodgy election processes; would accept the result as a true reflection of the democratic wishes of the people of Zimbabwe. SADC forced Mugabe to sign the Global Political Agreement (GPA) agreeing to the implementation of a raft of democratic reforms to ensure future elections are free, fair and credible.

Sadly, none of the democratic reforms were implemented, a fact Dewa does not deny hence his admission "the most important thing to focus on is electoral reforms to level the electoral field". The electoral playfield was not level for the July 2013 elections either and so how can the result be free, fair and credible?

Indeed, a close look at the July 2013 proves beyond doubt the process was illegal. Nearly one million voters, according to many independent monitors (300 000 according to ZEC's own report) were denied the vote on the day because their details were not in the constituency voters' roll. This would have been picked up and corrected if the voters' roll had been released at least one month before voting day, as is demanded by law. The regime only released a hard copy of the voters' roll just a few days before voting commenced.

There are YouTube video still available for viewing, Dewa should Google "Tendai Biti witnesses vote rigging in Zimbabwe" for himself. ZEC, the Police and the regime was aware of all this blatant vote rigging at the time and no investigation, no arrest nothing.

True, we do not have any "hard evidence" to ascertain the contribution the bussed hooded Zanu PF youths casting multiple votes made to Zanu PF's landslide victory but that is not because the evidence is hard to get. It is hard to get in this case because those with the power and authority to amass such evidence are the ones who have an investment interest in conceal the evidence – which a different matter.

Mr Dewa Mavhinga is supported to be a human rights expert; some expert given he does not seem to know that everyone has the right to free, fair and credible elections as stated in the UN Universal Human Rights declaration.

"Article 21.

(1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.

(2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.

(3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures." For a political expert one would expect Mr Mavhinga to know that there is no point in calling for the implementation of democratic reforms this late in the electoral cycle, there is no way any reforms can be agreed, drafted, implemented in time to stop Zanu PF rigging next year's elections.

Frankly, one does not need to be an expert anything, to see and conclude that Zanu PF has been riding roughshod over the people denying them their freedoms, basic human rights and their very humanity!

Zanu PF has failed to hold even one free, fair and credible elections in all the regime's 37 years in power; that is a historic fact. The political reality we must face and deal with today is that with no meaningful democratic reforms implemented Zanu PF will blatantly rig next year's elections.

We silence those detractors who deny the truth of Zanu PF rigging elections or worse still pretend the regime can rig the vote and, somehow, lose the elections. After 37 years of rigged elections, it is madness to continue contesting flawed elections and expect a different result, Zanu PF to lose.

BEFORE next elections can be held, we must demand the implementation of the democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections.