Opinion / Columnist
'Sweet scent of democracy sweeping Zambia in coming to Zimbabwe' - finally, many are questioning MDC A foolishness
17 Aug 2021 at 15:16hrs | Views
It is heartening to notice there is a noticeable shift is Zimbabwe politics; the old naïve, gullible ask-no-question mentality is being replace by the sober and savvy realism.
"Africa must have a new record of having credible elections, where blood is not shed on the basis of contestation. Zambian elections are a positive indicator of a new Africa and smooth transitions and institutions strong enough to bring change. Gone are the days where big men entered a new dispensation of ideas," Nelson Chamisa told Newsday.
"What we are seeing now is a new federation of democracy, citizen participation in defining the destiny of nations. It started in Malawi and swept into Zambia and now we can smell the sweet scent here in Zimbabwe. It is coming."
"There is utterly no connection between the Zambian and Zimbabwean political situation. It is just euphoria. Zimbabwe has complex electoral challenges which are not being encountered in Zambia," came the reply from analyst Alexander Rusero.
"In Zambia, the army demonstrated that it could adhere to its constitutional mandate of serving the people and performing the security duties impartially without aligning itself to any political party. In Zimbabwe, it is difficult to distinguish between an army officer and a politician. For us to be like Zambia, we need mechanisms, and a political infrastructure to enhance smooth transfer of power," he said.
Zimbabwe's 2008 elections is the benchmark of just how much influence Zanu PF has over the country's state institutions such as the ZEC and the securocrats, Army, Police, CIO and Prison Services. When it became clear that Zanu PF was losing to MDC in the March 2008 vote, Mnangagwa, by his own admission, ordered ZEC not to declare the result. He took over ZEC's responsibilities and ZEC cooperated fully!
It took six weeks to announce the results of 5 million votes! Of course, Zanu PF cooked the figures. Morgan Tsvangirai had garnered 73% of the votes, according to Mugabe's own Freudian slip, and what was announce after the six weeks was 47%, just enough to force the run-off.
For the run-off, Zanu PF mounted a military style campaign, Operation "Mavhotera papi!" (Whom did you vote for!), whose principle purpose was to punish the Zimbabwe electorate for having rejected Mugabe and Zanu PF in the March vote. The party used the war veterans and the party's youths as the foot soldiers to destroy property, harass, beat and rape. The high lifting of abductions and killing was carried out by securocrats personal.
"What was won by the bullet cannot be changed by the ballot!" thundered Robert Mugabe as he egged the wanton violence sweeping the country. Mugabe won the run-off with a staggering 84%!
Nothing, absolutely nothing, has been done to end Zanu PF's totally control of the country's state institutions such as ZEC, Army, etc. Zimbabwe had the golden opportunity to implement a raft of democratic reforms designed to end the Zanu PF dictatorship during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. The task of implemented the reforms fell to Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends.
Mugabe bribed the MDC leaders with the trappings of high office and for five years of the GNU MDC leaders had their snouts in the feeding trough and forgot about the reforms.
SADC leaders who had engineered the agreement leading to GNU and were the guarantor of the agreement tried they best to remind MDC leader to implement the reforms but were ignored. In sheer desperation the regional leaders, literally, begged MDC leaders not to participate in the 2013 elections without first implementing the reforms. "If you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done!" they warned.
Zanu PF's Acting National Political Commissar, Patrick Chinamasa, announced that Zanu PF was not going to fulfil Mnangagwa's September 2018 promise to allow the 3 million plus Zimbabweans in the diaspora to vote. The party will not grant the diaspora vote as long as Zanu PF leaders are not free to travel because of the sanctions imposed on them by the West, explained Chinamasa. A feeble excuse!
Why should any Zimbabweans be punished because Zanu PF leaders and West have quarrelled! In any case, at least 2 million plus Zimbabweans in the diaspora are in SADC and other countries with no sanctions against Zanu PF leaders; why are they being denied the vote?
How can the 2023 elections be legal, free, fair and credible when Zanu PF can arbitrarily, for there is no legal basis, deny 3 million plus potential voters the right to vote? It should be remembered that Mnangagwa win the 2018 presidency with 2.4 million votes or 50.8% of the cast vote.
Zanu PF has all but rigged the 2023 elections. The 2023 elections are done, just as the 2013 and 2018 elections were done!
By participating in the 2023 elections Nelson Chamisa and his fellow opposition opportunist are conniving with Zanu PF to deny the 3 million plus Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote and give the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy.
The people of Zimbabwe must acknowledge that although Zambia's democratic political system is not perfect it is nonetheless functioning unlike Zimbabwe's corrupt and dysfunctional system. Zimbabweans must heed SADC leaders' 2013 advice, bite the bullet, and implementation of the raft of democratic and stop the insanity of trying to win Zanu PF rigged elections!
"Sweet scent of democracy and citizen participation sweeping Zambia in coming to Zimbabwe!" This is nauseating MDC foolishness and Zimbabwe can ill afford this carryon!
"Africa must have a new record of having credible elections, where blood is not shed on the basis of contestation. Zambian elections are a positive indicator of a new Africa and smooth transitions and institutions strong enough to bring change. Gone are the days where big men entered a new dispensation of ideas," Nelson Chamisa told Newsday.
"What we are seeing now is a new federation of democracy, citizen participation in defining the destiny of nations. It started in Malawi and swept into Zambia and now we can smell the sweet scent here in Zimbabwe. It is coming."
"There is utterly no connection between the Zambian and Zimbabwean political situation. It is just euphoria. Zimbabwe has complex electoral challenges which are not being encountered in Zambia," came the reply from analyst Alexander Rusero.
"In Zambia, the army demonstrated that it could adhere to its constitutional mandate of serving the people and performing the security duties impartially without aligning itself to any political party. In Zimbabwe, it is difficult to distinguish between an army officer and a politician. For us to be like Zambia, we need mechanisms, and a political infrastructure to enhance smooth transfer of power," he said.
Zimbabwe's 2008 elections is the benchmark of just how much influence Zanu PF has over the country's state institutions such as the ZEC and the securocrats, Army, Police, CIO and Prison Services. When it became clear that Zanu PF was losing to MDC in the March 2008 vote, Mnangagwa, by his own admission, ordered ZEC not to declare the result. He took over ZEC's responsibilities and ZEC cooperated fully!
It took six weeks to announce the results of 5 million votes! Of course, Zanu PF cooked the figures. Morgan Tsvangirai had garnered 73% of the votes, according to Mugabe's own Freudian slip, and what was announce after the six weeks was 47%, just enough to force the run-off.
For the run-off, Zanu PF mounted a military style campaign, Operation "Mavhotera papi!" (Whom did you vote for!), whose principle purpose was to punish the Zimbabwe electorate for having rejected Mugabe and Zanu PF in the March vote. The party used the war veterans and the party's youths as the foot soldiers to destroy property, harass, beat and rape. The high lifting of abductions and killing was carried out by securocrats personal.
"What was won by the bullet cannot be changed by the ballot!" thundered Robert Mugabe as he egged the wanton violence sweeping the country. Mugabe won the run-off with a staggering 84%!
Nothing, absolutely nothing, has been done to end Zanu PF's totally control of the country's state institutions such as ZEC, Army, etc. Zimbabwe had the golden opportunity to implement a raft of democratic reforms designed to end the Zanu PF dictatorship during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. The task of implemented the reforms fell to Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends.
Mugabe bribed the MDC leaders with the trappings of high office and for five years of the GNU MDC leaders had their snouts in the feeding trough and forgot about the reforms.
SADC leaders who had engineered the agreement leading to GNU and were the guarantor of the agreement tried they best to remind MDC leader to implement the reforms but were ignored. In sheer desperation the regional leaders, literally, begged MDC leaders not to participate in the 2013 elections without first implementing the reforms. "If you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done!" they warned.
Zanu PF's Acting National Political Commissar, Patrick Chinamasa, announced that Zanu PF was not going to fulfil Mnangagwa's September 2018 promise to allow the 3 million plus Zimbabweans in the diaspora to vote. The party will not grant the diaspora vote as long as Zanu PF leaders are not free to travel because of the sanctions imposed on them by the West, explained Chinamasa. A feeble excuse!
Why should any Zimbabweans be punished because Zanu PF leaders and West have quarrelled! In any case, at least 2 million plus Zimbabweans in the diaspora are in SADC and other countries with no sanctions against Zanu PF leaders; why are they being denied the vote?
How can the 2023 elections be legal, free, fair and credible when Zanu PF can arbitrarily, for there is no legal basis, deny 3 million plus potential voters the right to vote? It should be remembered that Mnangagwa win the 2018 presidency with 2.4 million votes or 50.8% of the cast vote.
Zanu PF has all but rigged the 2023 elections. The 2023 elections are done, just as the 2013 and 2018 elections were done!
By participating in the 2023 elections Nelson Chamisa and his fellow opposition opportunist are conniving with Zanu PF to deny the 3 million plus Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote and give the vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy.
The people of Zimbabwe must acknowledge that although Zambia's democratic political system is not perfect it is nonetheless functioning unlike Zimbabwe's corrupt and dysfunctional system. Zimbabweans must heed SADC leaders' 2013 advice, bite the bullet, and implementation of the raft of democratic and stop the insanity of trying to win Zanu PF rigged elections!
"Sweet scent of democracy and citizen participation sweeping Zambia in coming to Zimbabwe!" This is nauseating MDC foolishness and Zimbabwe can ill afford this carryon!
Source - zsdemocrats.blogspot.com
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