Opinion / Columnist
CCC hell bent on participating in 2023 regardless rigging and damned consequences
31 Jan 2023 at 02:25hrs | Views
The 2023 Zimbabwe elections will be taking place by August 2023, that is seven months to go. The political temperature is rising!
When Emmerson Mnangagwa seized power following the November 2017 military coup he was cocksure sure his "Zimbabwe is open for business!" mantra will open the flood gates of investors and kick-start the country's economic recovery. Very few investors have responded to the call.
The mantra was dead in the water when, by rigging the 2018 elections, Mnangagwa confirmed Zimbabwe was still a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and ruthless thugs who rigged elections to stay in power; as was the case before the coup.
Indeed, the coup was just a musical chair to replace the dictator and a few around him with another dictator who added a few new faces to the old administration. As for policy, vote rigging, etc. it was business as usual.
It is therefore no surprise that country's economic fortunes have not change much; employment is still a nauseating 90%, basic services like health care and education have all but collapsed, nearly 50% of the population now live in abject poverty. And so to retain power in these 2023 elections, Mnangagwa has no other option than to pull all the stop to rig the process and use wanton violence.
Zanu PF is rigging the 2023 elections and there is already a mountain of evidence of the rigging. Last week ZEC confirm the commission's delimitation report tabled in parliament was not based on a verified voters' roll and that the elections will go ahead, regardless. There are a number of reported cases of violence and the numbers and the seriousness of the cases will increase and get worse as election temperature increases.
What outsiders not familiar with Zimbabwe politics will find surprising is the reaction of CCC and the rest in the opposition camp; they are hell bent on participating in these flawed elections no matter how hot the temperature rises. Why, the outsiders, may well ask?
Nelson Chamisa and his friends in the opposition know that Mnangagwa needs the opposition to participate in these elections to maintain the illusion Zimbabwe is a healthy and functioning democratic country to win legitimacy from SADC. And to entice the opposition Zanu PF allows them to win a few gravy train seats - small price to pay for legitimacy.
MDC had the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms and stop Zanu PF rigging elections during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. They failed to implement even one token reform in five years for the same reason MDC and now CCC has been participating in flawed elections - greed.
Mugabe bribed the MDC leaders with the trapping of high office and the rest is history.
MDC/CCC leaders have been given all manner of excuses to justify why they persist in participating in these flawed elections just to hide the real reason -greed. Most of the times they pretend the elections are free, fair and credible and doggedly refuse to even acknowledge the mountain of evidence of rigging. This always culminates with the same individuals complaining of Zanu PF rigging the morning after the voting when it's all too late since Zanu PF has secured legitimacy.
When the evidence of vote rigging and violence cannot be ignored, Chamisa and company claim they will win big regardless because they have winning in rigged elections (wire) strategies. When the election result are announce, they will once again complain the elections were rigged without ever admitting their wire strategies were just hot air.
The temperature of the 2023 elections is hotting up and Chamisa and company are playing one of their favourite tricks - appeal to SADC and the international community at large to intervene.
"The opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) says it has sent an appeal to Southern African Development Community (Sadc) and African Union (AU) and will also lobby international organisations to intervene on political violence as the country heads for polls in July or August this year," reported Newsday Zimbabwe.
It was SADC that intervened following the blatant cheating and wanton violence of the 2008 elections and forced Mugabe to agree to the implementation of the raft of democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections in future. Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends failed to implement even one reform in five years.
SADC advised MDC leaders not to participate in the 2013 election without first implementing the reforms and their advice fell on deaf ears. As noted above MDC leaders failed to implement even one reform in five years of the GNU and have been participating in flawed elections because of greed.
SADC, EU, the Americans, etc. have all recommended that Zimbabwe must implement democratic reforms to ensure free and fair elections. It is none other than CCC and the rest in the opposition camp who have insisted on elections with no reforms for selfish reasons. And Chamisa and company know this too!
"The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn't now do the obvious - withdraw from the (2013) elections," confessed David Coltart, CCC Treasurer General, in his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe.
"The electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility."
In short CCC leaders know that Zimbabwe will never ever have free, fair and credible elections and good governance without first implementing the democratic reforms. Chamisa and company's call for SADC intervention is just another time-wasting gimmick to hide they their iron resolve to participate in these flawed elections to, once again, give Zanu PF legitimacy in return for a share of the spoils of power!
When Emmerson Mnangagwa seized power following the November 2017 military coup he was cocksure sure his "Zimbabwe is open for business!" mantra will open the flood gates of investors and kick-start the country's economic recovery. Very few investors have responded to the call.
The mantra was dead in the water when, by rigging the 2018 elections, Mnangagwa confirmed Zimbabwe was still a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent and ruthless thugs who rigged elections to stay in power; as was the case before the coup.
Indeed, the coup was just a musical chair to replace the dictator and a few around him with another dictator who added a few new faces to the old administration. As for policy, vote rigging, etc. it was business as usual.
It is therefore no surprise that country's economic fortunes have not change much; employment is still a nauseating 90%, basic services like health care and education have all but collapsed, nearly 50% of the population now live in abject poverty. And so to retain power in these 2023 elections, Mnangagwa has no other option than to pull all the stop to rig the process and use wanton violence.
Zanu PF is rigging the 2023 elections and there is already a mountain of evidence of the rigging. Last week ZEC confirm the commission's delimitation report tabled in parliament was not based on a verified voters' roll and that the elections will go ahead, regardless. There are a number of reported cases of violence and the numbers and the seriousness of the cases will increase and get worse as election temperature increases.
What outsiders not familiar with Zimbabwe politics will find surprising is the reaction of CCC and the rest in the opposition camp; they are hell bent on participating in these flawed elections no matter how hot the temperature rises. Why, the outsiders, may well ask?
Nelson Chamisa and his friends in the opposition know that Mnangagwa needs the opposition to participate in these elections to maintain the illusion Zimbabwe is a healthy and functioning democratic country to win legitimacy from SADC. And to entice the opposition Zanu PF allows them to win a few gravy train seats - small price to pay for legitimacy.
Mugabe bribed the MDC leaders with the trapping of high office and the rest is history.
MDC/CCC leaders have been given all manner of excuses to justify why they persist in participating in these flawed elections just to hide the real reason -greed. Most of the times they pretend the elections are free, fair and credible and doggedly refuse to even acknowledge the mountain of evidence of rigging. This always culminates with the same individuals complaining of Zanu PF rigging the morning after the voting when it's all too late since Zanu PF has secured legitimacy.
When the evidence of vote rigging and violence cannot be ignored, Chamisa and company claim they will win big regardless because they have winning in rigged elections (wire) strategies. When the election result are announce, they will once again complain the elections were rigged without ever admitting their wire strategies were just hot air.
The temperature of the 2023 elections is hotting up and Chamisa and company are playing one of their favourite tricks - appeal to SADC and the international community at large to intervene.
"The opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) says it has sent an appeal to Southern African Development Community (Sadc) and African Union (AU) and will also lobby international organisations to intervene on political violence as the country heads for polls in July or August this year," reported Newsday Zimbabwe.
It was SADC that intervened following the blatant cheating and wanton violence of the 2008 elections and forced Mugabe to agree to the implementation of the raft of democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections in future. Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends failed to implement even one reform in five years.
SADC advised MDC leaders not to participate in the 2013 election without first implementing the reforms and their advice fell on deaf ears. As noted above MDC leaders failed to implement even one reform in five years of the GNU and have been participating in flawed elections because of greed.
SADC, EU, the Americans, etc. have all recommended that Zimbabwe must implement democratic reforms to ensure free and fair elections. It is none other than CCC and the rest in the opposition camp who have insisted on elections with no reforms for selfish reasons. And Chamisa and company know this too!
"The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn't now do the obvious - withdraw from the (2013) elections," confessed David Coltart, CCC Treasurer General, in his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe.
"The electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility."
In short CCC leaders know that Zimbabwe will never ever have free, fair and credible elections and good governance without first implementing the democratic reforms. Chamisa and company's call for SADC intervention is just another time-wasting gimmick to hide they their iron resolve to participate in these flawed elections to, once again, give Zanu PF legitimacy in return for a share of the spoils of power!
Source - zimbabwelight.blogspot.com
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