In Morgan Tsvangirai and his
MDC friends, the nation is stuck with individuals who are corrupt and incompetent;
set in their ways they are now immovable concrete blocks. They believe in their
own rhetoric, they do not listen to reason, to evidence of their past mistakes and
to any advice from anyone.
“The MDC Alliance offers the
down-trodden masses of Zimbabwe a rare opportunity to finally put the Zanu PF
dictatorship to rest in the 2018 harmonised elections. Granted, negotiations
for a final opposition coalition are still on-going but we should seize this
opportunity to give the brutal, insipidly and rabidly corrupt Zanu PF regime
the sucker punch in next year's elections,” wrote MDC-T spokesman, Obert Gutu,
in his latest article in Bulawayo 24.
Gutu has significant increased the number of articles he is producing since
the formation of the MDC Alliance and, of all the other MDC-T members, other
than Tsvangirai, his support of the Alliance has been nauseatingly fanatical.
No doubt, he is gunning for the post MDC Alliance spokesman!
“Going forward, the MDC
Alliance should strenuously fight for electoral reforms because we know that
Zanu PF is extremely reluctant to reform itself out of power. The battle for
electoral reforms should now be the rallying and clarion call for the MDC
Alliance. We are confronting a vapid, rabid and vacuous Zanu PF dictatorship
that is prepared to break the bank in order to retain political power.”
Poor Obert Gutu, the spirit
is willing but the intellect is weak! In his desperate effort to impress he is contradicting
himself and making a complete fool of himself.
Anyone who knows anything
about the reforms will tell you it is loony to still expect any reforms to be
implemented now with less than a year to go to voting day. Obert Gutu, himself,
after much cajoling, had finally accepted the futility of still talking about
reforms.
“We have come up with our own
new strategies which are smarter that we are going to use in wiring and wining
the elections,” Gutu told New Zimbabwe two weeks ago.
“I think you are now hearing us talking about the WIRE (short for Winning In Rigged Elections) trajectory, which is our new strategy, because obviously we are budgeting for the worst case scenario where the regime is not going to budge because very little in terms of reforms has been done and we will be fools to think that Zanu PF is going to give in.”
Now he tells us electoral
reforms are not just back on the agenda; they are “the rallying and clarion
call”!
Gutu does not even mention
the WIRE strategy in his latest article. It would be too much to hope that these
MDC politicians have finally come to their senses and accept the madness of
contesting flawed elections and hope to win, especially when it is against Zanu
PF’s well-funded, tested and perfected vote rigging juggernaut.
“If
you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done,”
SADC leaders warned Morgan Tsvangirai in June 2013. Sadly Tsvangirai & co.
ignored the warning and contested the July 2013 elections with no reforms in
place. They lost the elections.
It was David Coltart who has
since admitted the true reason why MDC leaders disregarded the SADC leaders’
warning.
“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 elections,” explained Senator Coltart.
“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.”
Coltart thought that a united
opposition would have done the right thing and boycott the elections; he was
wrong. The opposition have formed the Alliance and still there is no talk of
boycotting the elections.
When President Mugabe refused
to implement the democratic reforms, he knew there will be talk of opposition boycotting
the election. His gamble was that as long as he offered them a few gravy train
seats they will contest the elections no matter how flawed and illegal the
process happened to be. He was right, the bribe has worked with a charm!
“We have now entered the homestretch. We are stronger together. United we stand and divided we fall. History will judge us very harshly if we miss this final opportunity to send the Zanu PF regime to the cleaners,” concluded Gutu.
The MDC Alliance is now being
used to justify why the opposition are contenting yet another election. They
are using cheap rhetoric to rally the naïve and gullible; other than Coltart
that once in his book, none of the opposition politicians will ever admit they
are contesting the flawed elections out of selfishness and greed.
37 years of corrupt and
tyrannical Zanu PF rule has left the nation in serious economic trouble;
unemployment has soared to 90% plus and 72.3%, according Social Welfare
Minister, Prisca Mupfumira’s own figures. The country is standing on the brim edge
total economic collapse. If next year’s elections are rigged, that could be the
final push sending the nation tumbling down into the abyss.
SADC leaders’ warning not to
contest the elections with no reforms is even more pertinent today than in
2013.
It is now up to the people of
Zimbabwe themselves to listen to SADC leaders’ sound advice and not participate
in next year’s elections. Or to believe MDC leaders’ empty rhetoric, lies and
betrayals again, we are in this mess because they failed to implement even one
reform during the GNU, and allow ourselves to be dragged into yet another
flawed election.
Each time we have followed
Tsvangirai & co. blindly like sheep, we have paid dearly for our folly.
This time the stakes for another rigged election are much, much high; total
economic collapse and the lives of hundreds if not thousands of our people.
Mugabe this afternoon announced that the voter registration will start next week on September 14, 2017 and end on January 15, 2018.
ReplyDeleteWe are starting a new voting system, we have known this for the last four years, and last time we have failed to produce a verifiable voters roll. What people will find hard to believe is why the voter registration has not started two or three years ago.
It is impossible to see how the government will meet its commitment to give everyone who wishes to register to vote an opportunity to do so and still produce a verifiable voters’ roll and allow corrections to be made. There is no doubt that all these delays were avoidable.
Zanu PF is rigging the elections already and it really is pointless participating!
“But the MDC-T has ignored all advice given to date on the on going rigging warning signs, and party spokesperson Obert Gutu told ZimEye the MDC-T is going ahead despite the obvious rigging. He called their strategy, WIRE – Win In Rigged Elections,” said Zimeye report.
The people of Zimbabwe must wake-up to the political reality that MDC and the other opposition parties are contesting these elections knowing very well that the whole process is a sham. SADC leaders have already advised MDC leaders not to contest the elections until reforms are implemented. President Mugabe knows that as long as he allowed the opposition to win a few seats they will contest the elections regardless how flawed the process.
Zimbabwe’s opposition have sold-out on free, fair and credible elections that is why they failed to get even one reform implemented even when they had the golden opportunity to do so. It took many Zimbabweans 20 years also to admit President Mugabe was a corrupt and murderous tyrant the nation will pay dearly for it if people continue to refuse to accept the political reality that Tsvangirai & co. are sell-outs!
@ David Barber
ReplyDeleteShould never allow anyone to "box" you with such arguments as "it is now too close to the elections to look for alternative ways" particularly when the very people doing so are the ones who saw to it that there blocked all the avenues to alternatives and they are the ones who stand to benefit from you having no other choices.
We took part in the elections in 2013 and we ended up with the every thing to thing saying we should fear "another five years of Zanu PF".
SADC leaders showed us an alternative, not to contest the elections without reforms.
Of course, contesting elections you know are going to be rigged is insane, madness.
This MDC Alliance will do nothing to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections yet again. All the Alliance has done is give MDC an excuse to contest next year's elections knowing fully well the elections will be rigged. Indeed the vote rigging is well on its way already with the dilly-dallying over the registering of the voters. Zanu PF is not going to register all those who want to and will exclude many more from being entered in the voters, etc., etc. I will bet you the regime will never produce a verifiable voters' roll for 2018.
Boycott the election is the most sensible alternative to contesting a flawed process. The reason why MDC did not boycott the elections in July 2013 and will not do it next year is the same reason they failed to get even one democratic reform implemented during the GNU. GREED.
To keep contesting flawed elections is insane. There is an alternative to madness, do not contest.
@ David
ReplyDeleteThere is a realistic alternative here, do not participate in the elections until the reforms are implemented. Why have we not tried that one?
Because:
a) Zanu PF does not want free, fair and credible elections.
b) MDC leaders have no clue what the reforms are and they were very pleased with the bribes fromPresident Mugabe to do nothing about the reforms during he GNU. Since the 2013 rigged elections they are happy with the few gravy train seats Zanu PF throws away as bribes to entice them to contest flawed elections.
The present arrangement suits Zanu PF to the T and it is not ideal for the opposition still it is acceptable. The real losers here are the ordinary Zimbabweans whose lives is now hell-on-earth.
The only solution for the ordinary people is to refuse to have anything to do with this charade and make it clear they have nothing to do with the election. SADC leaders are not stupid, they too can see what is going on here. If SADC rejected the rigged elections, which is what they would have done if MDC had boycotted the elections, this will force Zanu PF to accept another GNU. This time the people should make sure the reforms are implemented.
Thinking that MDC will win rigged elections is wishful thinking bordering on insanity!
@ David
ReplyDeleteAsk yourself why did SADC leaders take the trouble to advise Tsvangirai and company not to contest the July 2013 elections if that meant Zanu PF winning all the seats "unopposed". Of course, they would have known why no one in the opposition had bothered contest - they knew Zanu PF was going to rig the elections before voting started, remember.
By boycotting the elections it would have made it easier for SADC leaders to condemn the elections. But by contesting, particularly in this case after you have been warned elections will be rigged. MDC made it very difficult to condemn the result afterwards.
Tsvangirai thought he would win the rigged elections and has only himself to blame when he lost the elections.
One of the really amazing things about tyrant is how thick skinned they are in all matters concerned others and how thin skinned and super sensitive they are in matters concerning them.
ReplyDeletePresident Mugabe and his wife are reportedly outraged that they were accused of poisoning VP Mnangagwa.
“Social media has created problems for us, people shouting and denigrating each other using very bad words,” Mugabe told his central committee.
“What kind of people have we become? What kind of children are we giving birth to?
“What kind of Zanu PF can that be, which is run on social media?”
The nation is reeling under the ill effects of a devastating economic meltdown which has send unemployment soaring into the nauseating heights of 90% plus and 72.3% of our people are today living on one dollar or less a day. Zimbabweans are the poorest in the world and yet Mugabe and his regime have hardly noticed it. Of course, our ruling elite, especially the Mugabes, are some of the richest and living the most extravagant lifestyles in the world.
President Mugabe has president over the coldblooded murder of over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans to establish and retain his de facto one-party state. It has never bothered him – indeed he has even boasted of his “degrees in violence!”
We need to rid ourselves of this murderous tyrant a.s.a.p. Contesting flawed elections hoping to “win in rigged elections”, as MDC are telling us is insanity personified. We must refuse to take part in flawed elections, as SADC leaders have already advised.
The root cause of our suffering is the Zanu PF dictatorship but behind it, it is our own failure to think. President Mugabe has rigged elections for the last 37 years and yet we continue to take part hoping against hope that he will rig the vote and lose the elections. How stupid is that!
We are stuck in a hell-hole physically but only because we are stuck in a mental hell-hole of our own making. We are refusing to accept that Tsvangirai and the opposition have been leading us into one blunder after another even with the mountain of evidence before us!
Those who go around with their eyes closed will stumble and fall until they learn the folly of their ways.
Even with the best political will in the world, and that is the one thing Zanu PF does not have, it will be a real challenge to produce a new voters roll of 7 million in four months and hold the elections a few months thereafter.
ReplyDeleteZanu PF failed to release a voters roll for the 2013 elections and it is almost certain the regime will not produce one for 2018 elections. It is clear as day this was what the regime wanted. Zanu PF is already rigging the elections and it is madness to contest an election whose result is already fixed!
Even with the best political will in the world, and that is the one thing Zanu PF does not have, it will be a real challenge to produce a new voters roll of 7 million in four months and hold the elections a few months thereafter.
ReplyDeleteZanu PF failed to release a voters roll for the 2013 elections and it is almost certain the regime will not produce one for 2018 elections. It is clear as day this was what the regime wanted. Zanu PF is already rigging the elections and it is madness to contest an election whose result is already fixed!