Elections inevitable this year

THE growing realisation that Zimbabwe should hold a harmonised general election some time this year has opened a can of dirty worms with the usual detractors in the diplomatic community and their band of puppets and associated electoral cowards throwing up all sorts of self-serving oppositions to what in point of fact has become an inevitable election, given that the so-called inclusive government, whose envisioned tenure expires next month, has become fatally dysfunctional.

No matter how you look at it, and notwithstanding the fact that its timing over the last 24 months had all the revolutionary blessings of Mbuya Nehanda and King Lobengula to buy us invaluable time, the coalition government was right from the signing of the Global Political Agreement [GPA] on September 15, 2008, a doomed creature whose semi-legal nature was made worse by the bringing together of ideologically-irreconcilable political forces with the inevitable result of producing an awkward and dysfunctional structure called an "inclusive government" which has existed only in name.

It is hard to imagine that there's any rational person out there who has truly believed or genuinely hoped that revolutionary nationalists who ' as a legacy of our hard-won independence ' shoulder the responsibility of transforming our country from its profound trappings of imperialism, colonialism and neo-colonialism to total political and economic independence through indigenisation and the empowerment of the masses can reconcile and work well with shameless American and European puppets in a so-called inclusive government.

In ideological and political terms, Zanu PF and the various MDC formations, which now number four or so and still counting, are like oil and water and they cannot mix to make one totally legal, fully representative and properly functional inclusive Government capable of delivering goods and services to the people.

The one compelling and irrefutable reason why a harmonised general election must be held as soon as possible this year is that our country does not have a fully representative and properly functioning government, not only because the GPA has failed to produce a requisite government due to the fact that the political parties that signed it cannot mix like oil and water, but also because there's no party in the House of Assembly with at least 105 seats out of 210 necessary to command the mandate to properly govern in the national interest on behalf of the masses.

In any case, and this is very important to point out upfront, Article 21 of the GPA foresaw and endorsed the possibility of elections, including by-elections, after 12 months of its implementation. Therefore, only scoundrels will oppose the holding of a harmonised general election this year under the false cover of the GPA.

Yet despite this self-evident fact, or even because of it, Zimbabwe's busybodies among foreign diplomats in Harare and the hostile governments they represent along with their coterie of local puppets and electoral cowards have been falling on each other to pontificate against what is otherwise a necessary and therefore unavoidable harmonised general election this year.
Three telling and rather fanciful opinions in this regard stand out for critical interrogation for the purpose of exposing their folly.

In the first and general place there's a strange "roadmap" view around which Zimbabwe's detractors are increasingly converging. What on earth is this "roadmap"?

Where is it coming from and where is it going? Why is this so-called roadmap suddenly more important than not just the GPA but also the Constitution of Zimbabwe?

Who is trying to fool who here about this roadmap nonsense?
Let us examine the case. According to the misplaced and very dangerous view of an election "roadmap", there is a need for a roadmap to the holding of the next harmonised general election whose content should, among other unknown things, determine the date and conduct of the election.

This roadmap nonsense, which has been conveniently, if not mischievously associated with Sadc and the regional body's facilitator on Zimbabwe President Jacob Zuma, is totally unacceptable not only because it is borrowed from a tired American concept that has failed in the Middle East but also because it seeks to subvert our national sovereignty enshrined in our Constitution and to undermine the same GPA that is proclaimed by the misguided proponents of the alleged roadmap.

Even the GPA itself makes it clear under Article IX paragraph 9.2(a) that " . . . the responsibility of effecting change of government in Zimbabwe vests exclusively on and is the sole prerogative of the people of Zimbabwe through peaceful, democratic and constitutional means". A "roadmap", which by definition is susceptible to all manner of foul play and evil machinations, is not and will never be part of our democratic and constitutional means of effecting change of government in our country.

As such, the point must be made and made in the strongest possible way, and those with ears must hear, that no election in Zimbabwe will be set and conducted on the basis of any "roadmap". Our country is not a banana republic with neo-colonial roadmaps running through or around it. Zimbabwe is a fully-fledged sovereign republic with a Constitution that underwrites fully functioning institutions and processes under the rule of law. A roadmap is a whimsical rule of the jungle and not a rule of law and is therefore unacceptable for that reason and that reason alone.

The record will show that Zimbabwe's three political parties represented in Parliament negotiated and signed the GPA on September 15 2008 on the basis of which a coalition government was formed on February 13 2009. There will be no other agreement in the form of an "electoral roadmap" to replace the GPA whose lifetime is coming to grief on February 13.

What all this means is that the only "roadmaps" for the next harmonised general election are the GPA and the Constitution of Zimbabwe. There is nothing new to negotiate. Anything else is mumbo jumbo and Zimbabweans no longer have any patience for that.

In the second place and for some strange reason there's a widespread but mistaken belief in the donor, diplomatic and NGO communities, which some opportunistic political parties with no popular support are desperately holding to, that in terms of the GPA signed on September 15 2008 the next harmonised general election must be timed by and held under a new constitution to be adopted through the Copac process which has been stalled by its stop and go syndrome.

The time has come for all those concerned about the political situation in Zimbabwe to know and understand that there is no necessary connection between the ongoing constitution-making process and the timing and conduct of the next harmonised general election.

The mere fact that the Copac process includes a referendum means that it is entirely possible that the Copac draft constitution might be rejected by voters in a referendum. Surely, that very possible outcome would not in any way foreclose the holding of national elections. This is why Zanu-PF has been very clear that the case for holding a harmonised general election this year speaks for itself regardless of whether we would by then have a new constitution.

As things stand, and given the stalling tactics and other manipulative games that Zimbabwe's detractors are now playing around the Copac process in their vain hope to influence the timing, conduct and outcome of our next general election, nobody should be surprised if the next harmonised general election is held well before the referendum on a new draft constitution.

After all, there's nothing in the GPA which says there must be a new constitution before the next general election.  Copac can take as much time as it needs to come up with a new draft constitution but meanwhile the business of the nation must continue unabated and that includes holding democratic elections when necessary such as when the government of the day becomes incurably dysfunctional as has become the case with the hopeless GPA government whose foreseen tenure expires next month.

For the avoidance of doubt, the point must be underscored that the next harmonised general election in Zimbabwe due this year will not be held on the basis of some fanciful electoral roadmap or even under a new constitution arising from the Copac process whose outcome is anybody's guess but under the Constitution of Zimbabwe as amended and in terms of the Electoral Act.

Both the Constitution of Zimbabwe and the Electoral Act have been amended over the last 24 months of GPA rule, and there are still more amendments to the Electoral Act before Parliament, for the purpose of ensuring that conditions for free and fair elections even if the contest is between revolutionaries and puppets of imperialism, colonialism or neo-colonialism as the case in Zimbabwe.

The bottom line, therefore, is that there's no constitutional, legal or political case whatsoever for Zimbabwe to first adopt a new constitution before the holding of the next harmonised general election.  The constitutional and legal framework for elections is now in place and everybody who matters knows that.

In the third place, Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC, which needs massive American hand-holding for it to be a party to reckon with let alone to govern alone, has yet again demonstrated its lack of executive thought and capacity, which former US Ambassador Christopher Dell wrote about in his WikiLeaks US government cable, by naively claiming that Zimbabwe only needs a presidential election which excludes Parliamentary and local government elections.

The MDC-T's call for the holding of presidential elections alone is ridiculous on three counts. One is that the Constitution of Zimbabwe is clear that we now have a dispensation of holding harmonised elections as a matter of law.  This is something which the self-appointed champions of the rule of law in the MDC-T should be the first to know.

Putting aside this constitutional point, even fools know that Article 20.1.6(1) of the GPA provides that "There shall be a President, which office shall continue to be occupied by President Robert Gabriel Mugabe".

What this means is that President Mugabe's presidency existed before the GPA and therefore cannot end with the GPA as it was not created by the GPA.

Put differently, the GPA itself recognises the fact that President Mugabe's tenure was created by the Zimbabwean electorate in terms of the Constitution of Zimbabwe and not by the GPA. This GPA recognition of the President's Office is in sharp contrast to Article 20.1.6(2) which states that "There shall be a Prime Minister, which office shall be occupied by Mr Morgan Tsvangirai".

It is very clear from this Article that Tsvangirai is a creation of the GPA and not a product of the electorate. Zimbabweans did not elect a Prime Minister in March 2008 or June 2008 and Tsvangirai and his foolish supporters and American and European backers know that.

But more to the point, the real reason why Zimbabwe has a dysfunctional government is less about the awkward structure of the executive and more about the composition of Parliament which is responsible for the unworkable coalition government in our midst whose failure on the policy front and on social delivery matters makes it necessary for our country to have a harmonised general election this year as soon as possible after the tenure of the GPA ends next month.

Indeed to be honest, the case for dissolving Parliament and having parliamentary elections alone would be screaming out loud everywhere if Zimbabwe did not have the new legal dispensation of harmonised presidential, parliamentary and local government elections. How or why this self-evident truth is lost to the MDC formations and their foreign handlers is mind-boggling, but it is further proof of their incapacity.

The reason why harmonised elections are not only necessary but also urgent is that the source of the dysfunctional government is in Parliament.

The government is formed from Parliament and the current Parliament is dysfunctional for two reasons: one is that no party commands at least 105 out of 210 seats in the House of Assembly and the other is that the fact that no party has the required threshold to form a proper and fully functioning government has necessitated an unworkable and, in fact, impossible co-operation between political parties that mix like oil and water.

Zimbabweans have watched and listened in horror to MDC Members of Parliament who have abused the floor of the august House not only to defend the illegal economic sanctions that have caused untold suffering among the majority of our compatriots but to also call for their expansion and extension.

The enemy is now inside the house and that is intolerable.  Something needs to be done and done quickly to rid the house of the enemy and there is no better way out than a democratic and non-violent harmonised election this year. It is obvious that the enemy's manifesto is violence which the enemy intends to unleash and blame on Zanu-PF. It's called pseudo violence and it was perfected by Ian Smith's Rhodesian Selous Scouts. Ask David Coltart about it.

In the circumstances, a major if not decisive challenge in 2011 is to deny our desperate and cornered enemies the use of violence as their propaganda material against us. The challenge is not only to shun violence in favour of our superior ideology and policies but also to ensure that we do not allow our enemies to blame us for their violence which they are wont to unleash as they have done before.

When the likes of Tendai Biti warn of electoral bloodbath ahead, they are speaking of their plans and not ours. So let us warn them back by making it clear to them that this time their pseudo violence will be nipped in the bud. If they do not believe this, then they ain't seen nothing yet and they should watch the space!