Sunday 22 October 2017

"Register in numbers," Tsvangirai continues to argue - more out of habit than reason W Mukori

The ostrich is a creature of habit, it will bury its head in the sand as a matter of habit. It is now clear that Morgan Richard Tsvangirai too is a creature of habit, like the ostrich, he too habitually buries his head in the sand.
“The principals urge the people of Zimbabwe to register in their numbers as we prepare for the watershed 2018 elections at the heart of the motivation behind the formation of the MDC Alliance was to avoid splitting the vote in favour of the status quo,” said Tsvangirai, after a principals’ meeting on Friday.
Tsvangirai is still banking millions of opposition supporters registering in the ongoing Biometric Voter Registration exercise and then going on to vote for the opposition and thus overhaul all Zanu PF’s vote rigging shenanigans. Naturally, one of Zanu PF’s vote rigging shenanigans is to stop would-be opposition voters registering in any significant numbers; there is growing evidence that the plan is working!
Given the fact that the country is starting a clean voters’ roll using the new Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) system, the registration exercise should have started early 2015, at the latest. The exercise only started last month, with less than a year before the next elections. Even with the best will in the world, there is no way ZEC can register 7 million voters in the four months allocated to complete the task.  
As if the very late start in voter registration was not bad enough, the registration has been dogged by such operational matters such as ZEC official turning up late at registration centres, the registration process taking two hours instead of the projected 5 minutes, centres running out of the VR9 forms, etc., etc. There is no doubt that the delays were deliberate and they have supped the enthusiasm opposition supporter had to register.
Less than ¼ million of the expected 7 million registered in the first month and, at this rate, the opposition will be lucky to get 2 million supporters registered. Many of these will be denied the vote, come voting day, because their details will not be in the polling station they expected. Meanwhile Zanu PF has said it will get 5 million of its supporters registered and, no doubt, it will.
The regime has paid traditional leaders and party thugs are corral villagers to register and, come voting day, will frogmarch them to vote for Zanu PF. The regime will register its supporters multiple times just to make up the numbers on the voters’ roll and, come voting day, many of these ghost voters will vote too!
With the voter registration exercise starting so late there is no way, even with the best will in the world, ZEC is ever going to produce a verified voters’ roll. And given the vote rigging antics described above, it is clear why the regime would not want to release a verified voters’ roll; it is the smoking gun to the vote rigging.
So, there is overwhelming evidence that the opposition will never ever get many of their supporters to register as voters and then, come voting day, to vote. Zanu PF vote rigging well and truly underway already and there is really nothing the opposition is doing to stop it or counter it. Indeed, Morgan Tsvangirai and his opposition friends continue to call for mass registration, etc. although it is clear these are all futile measures.
Worse still, this is not the first time Zanu PF has rigged elections or the opposition have pretended not to see the elections were being rigged; the same thing happened in July 2013. On that occasion, Tsvangirai and his MDC friends were warned not to contest the flawed elections until reforms are implemented to stop the vote rigging. MDC leaders ignored the warning and contested the elections; which Zanu PF went on to blatantly rig, as we know.
So, in 2013 and again now, Tsvangirai & co. are burying their heads in the sand and pretending not to notice that Zanu PF is rigging the vote. Why?
Tsvangirai & co. sold-out during the GNU when they failed to get even one democratic reform implemented in five years. Mugabe bribed them with the trappings of high office, a farmed seized from a white farmer for Welshman Ncube, a $4 million mansion for Morgan Tsvangirai, etc. Although few of the MDC leaders, like David Coltart, were smart enough to realise the folly of contesting the July 2013 elections with no reforms in place but even with the benefit of hindsight he still chose to bury his head in the sand.
“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 in his recent book. 
“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.”
If MDC leaders did not boycott the July 2013 elections because they had not formed the coalition; what is the excuse for contesting 2018, the MDC Alliance was formed two months ago!
The truth is Tsvangirai & co. will never boycott the elections on the “No reform, no elections!” grounds. To do this, they will have, sooner or later, to admit that it was their faulty that not even one reform was implemented during the GNU; this is the one thing they have singularly failed to do.
However, the world can see that Zanu PF is rigging the 2018 elections and the whole election is a sham. Unlike in 2013 when they allowed the vote rigging to pass; they, especially SADC leaders who know the price of yet another rigged Zimbabwe election will be costly to the country and the whole region, will condemn next year’s rigged elections.

The people of Zimbabwe must start preparing themselves for GNU Mark 2; it is coming, of that we can be certain! We must be make sure that this time around, we implement all the democratic reforms timeously without failure.

11 comments:

  1. Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus rescinds President Robert Mugabe’s Goodwill Ambassador Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) in Africa appointment.

    Here is the man who has destroyed Zimbabwe's health service so much so that he, his family and cronies now go outside the country for health needs, depriving the country's health sector of the funds and thus sinking it even deeper into the abyss. To then name the tyrant a goodwill ambassador of health is a sick joke! Thank God someone told these fools at WHO this is not funny!

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  2. “The Principals urge the people of Zimbabwe to register in their numbers as we prepare for the watershed 2018 elections at the heart of the motivation behind the formation of the MDC Alliance was to avoid splitting the vote in favour of the status quo,” wrote Tsvangirai.

    “2018 is a game changer and you are the game changers.”

    Will someone please tell this fruit-cake, Morgan Tsvangirai, that Zanu PF has effectively taken all the steam people had build-up to register by making the process as hard and tedious slow as they can. The harder the people tried to get registered the higher the regime raised the bar. What does Tsvangirai want people to do when the voter registration which is supposed to take 5 minutes takes two hours, when the registration stops because they have run out of VR9 forms, etc.

    If Tsvangirai was not such a fruit-cake with an empty head, then he would remember that these dirty tactics of frustrating opposition supporters to stop them registering as voters is not a new thing. The regime used the same dirty tactics in the July 2013 elections. Many opposition supporters will try to get registered but many will never be registered regardless of how hard they try. It is clearly one of the regime’s vote rigging tactic to ensure a limited number of opposition’s supporter register as voters.

    If MDC was serious about everyone wishing to vote being given the opportunity to register and then voting then Tsvangirai and company would be insisting on getting the reforms implemented before elections, as SADC leaders have already advised. We should not be contesting elections with no reforms, it is insane!

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  3. “Getting voters to turn out for the ongoing biometric voter registration (BVR) exercise is the puzzle before the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec), political parties, civil society organisations (CSOs), development partners (like the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)) and citizens at large,” said Innocent Batsani Ncube, Scholar.

    “According to figures released by Zec, the district-based registration phase that began with “pomp and fanfare” at State House, netted only 40 000 registrants in almost one month. The “blitz” has also started on a low note and the signs of voter registration apathy loom large. This puts Zimbabwe’s ability to hold credible elections that will address legitimacy issues at risk.”

    Zanu PF and ZEC do not want the people to register as voters hence the reason the exercise was delayed until last month so that it is going to be a rushed job. The regime will never produce a verified voters’ roll, just as happened in 2013, because it has no intention of holding free, fair and credible elections and the voters’ roll will be the smoking gun.

    SADC leaders have advised against contesting the elections without implementing the reforms precisely because Zanu PF will rig the vote. It is very disappointing that anyone should have to be told that Zanu PF is rigging these elections, especially someone calling himself “a scholar!

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  4. “As Zimbabweans sleep-walk into yet another general election, there is no escaping the sense that perhaps this whole process is a costly charade and the US$274 million earmarked for the poll could be put to better use by being channelled towards the grossly underfunded social sectors of education and health,” wrote Candid Comment, Brezhnev Malaba
    bmalaba@zimind.co.zw

    “When will opposition parties begin presenting their policy agenda? Where are the alternative ideas which will convince people that it is actually worthwhile to go out there, spend an hour in a queue and get registered as a voter?”

    The real big surprise here is that it has not yet dawned on you that Zanu PF’s agenda is make sure many of the opposition supporters do not register. What makes you think that after spending an hour in the queue you would register? The process is supposed to take 5 minutes but it has been slowed down to two hours.

    Only 40 000 have registered in the first month and there is only three months left!

    No doubt ZEC will have 5 million or so registered voters but how many of those are real people and not multiple entries, ghosts, etc. is anyone’s guess. The regime will never release a verified voters’ roll and so we will never know how the regime rigged the vote.

    Zanu PF has been rigging elections and to contest elections with no reforms in place to stop the rigging is mid-summer madness! After 37 years of rigged elections one would think we are finally snapped out of our comatose sleep to demand the reforms before the elections but clearly there are some people out there who are still fast asleep!

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  5. Both Zanu PF and PF Zapu had each wanted to impose a one-party state in Zimbabwe whilst it is true that latter would have preferred a PF Zapu one party state a Zanu PF one-party state in which they were given guaranteed seats at the top table suit them.

    After the signing of unity accords Mugabe pushed for de facto one-party state and the likes of Dabengwa and other former PF Zapu members played their part in that drive. ZRP has always been a highly politicised institution and Dr Dabengwa was Home Affairs Minister for donkey years but he has never done anything to reform the Police. He is now pretending to be a democrat just like Simba Makoni, Joice Mujuru and everyone else who left or was booted out of Zanu PF.

    For Zimbabwe to be turned into a de facto one-party state after all the Gukurahundi massacre was to reward Mugabe for his barbarism. By the same token, for the GNU to fail to implement even one democratic reform was to, once again, reward Mugabe for his wanton violence and blatant vote rigging in 2008! The Unity Accord did not have to consolidate the de facto one-party dictatorship and to say so now is a lie!

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  6. VATICAN City - Pope Francis on Sunday called for constructive dialogue in Kenya where he said he was following the situation with "close attention" over disputed elections.
    "I am paying close attention in these days to Kenya, which I visited in 2015," Francis told pilgrims and tourists gathered for the Angelus prayer.
    Francis said he was praying "that the whole country might be able to face the current difficulties in a climate of constructive dialogue, having at heart the search for the common good."
    The country’s “common good” is only served by making that elections are free, fair and credible. To hold the rerun without doing something to ensure the “irregularities”, the Supreme Court had pickup following the August vote, are not repeated in madness.
    Kenya has suffered for decades after independence under the de facto one-party, KANU, dictatorship. By holding the rerun without fixing the vote problems, the country is drifting back into those dark age decades of one-party dictatorship. Give someone carte blanche powers to rig elections, you can be certain that they will use those powers!

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  7. If the people of Zimbabwe had been paying any attention, which they should have, to the going-on during the GNU they would have insisted on getting the reforms implemented before the 2013 elections. Their excuse then was they believed Morgan Tsvangirai and his riff-raff MDC friends’ repeated assurances that the new 2013 constitution would deliver free, fair and credible elections.

    When Zanu PF went on to blatantly rig the 2013 elections, this should have been a wake-up house-on-fire alarm call for every Zimbabwean.

    The whole purpose of the GNU was to implement a raft of democratic reforms to ensure blatant vote rigging and wanton violence of 2008 will never again be repeated. People were fooled by MDC leaders into believing that the new 2013 constitution was enough to stop the vote rigging; clearly that was not the case. If the people were taking the need for good governance and know it is impossible to have such a government without free, fair and credible elections; then they will be demanding sold rock guarantees this time that next year’s elections are going to be free and fair.

    There has been not even one democratic reform implemented since the rigged July 2013 elections. NOT ONE!

    If the people of Zimbabwe are going into next year’s elections hoping that the opposition will, somehow, stop Zanu PF rigging the vote; then they are naïve and deserve to suffer the consequences of yet another rigged election.

    If the people are going into next year’s election hoping that MDC’s Winning In Rigged Elections (WIRE) strategies will foil Zanu PF’s well-funded vote rigging juggernaut then, again, they are naïve and deserve to suffer. President Mugabe bamboozled Tsvangirai & co. during the GNU into doing nothing to implement the reforms for five years. MDC had the trump cards then, majority in parliament, the support of SADC leaders, etc. Now Mugabe has all the aces and to think a simpleton like Tsvangirai can out fox Mugabe is barmy!

    Whilst the country’s economic meltdown has continued to get worse by the day; unemployment a nauseating 90%, 72.3% of the people are living on US$ 1.00 or less a day, etc.; Zanu PF is spending billions of dollars to secure another landslide victory. No WIRE strategies from an upstart like Tsvangirai will stop the Zanu PF juggernaut. The only way to stop the juggernaut dead in its tracks is to insist on implementing the reforms before the elections. If Zanu PF refuse to listen and plough on with the elections, then people must have nothing to do with the flawed elections. Nothing!

    SADC and the rest of the world can see Zanu PF is rigging the elections, they are neither blind nor stupid. These elections are a sham and the world will dismiss them as such forcing Zimbabwe into the GNU mark 2, as you said!

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  8. “We want to assure all opposition supporters in Chitungwiza to remain calm as the young people’s movement is in the area to protect all citizens. Where government fails to honour its responsibility to protect citizens, the young peoples’ Campaign will deliver peace for citizens of Zimbabwe.”
    Tajamuka-Sesijikile Campaign warned that it would take drastic action against suspected Zanu PF youth involved in the politically-motivated violence.
    What “drastic action” can Tajamuka take? This is the political posturing and grandstanding that should not be encouraged.

    The 2008 elections were a watershed elections in that President Mugabe and his Zanu PF henchmen showed us all the depth of depravity and barbarism the regime will sink to retain political power. We do not need to go into another election to go through that nightmare again. SADC leaders have made it very clear, we should not contest any elections without first implementing the reforms designed to force the Police doing their work and stop Zanu PF rigging the vote.

    “If you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done,” SADC leaders warned Morgan Tsvangirai before the 2013 elections.

    It is madness to go into next year’s elections banking on Tajamuka youths’ drunken promise “to protect all citizens”!

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  9. Harare Hospital, a death trap for newborn babies!

    This is the reality President Mugabe is refusing to see. His party is talking of raising US$ 8 million for its party congress, two weeks ago he promised to spend $3.6 million buying new cars for the party's youths and women's league members, his wife and step son each bought new Rolls Royces cars worth US$ 2.5 million each, etc. Meanwhile even a big Hospital like Harare cannot afford something as basic as an incubator for new born babies!

    Of course, whilst Mugabe continues to enjoy unlimited funding from looted national worth there is no hope of dislodging the tyrant from power. Zimbabweans have to wake-up to the reality that meaningful political change will only come from demanding the implementation of the reforms BEFORE elections.

    Tsvangirai and his riff-raff MDC idiots are not doing the nation any favours by encouraging people to participate in flawed and illegal elections!

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  10. “That is why I was so thrilled to hear the calls by British taxpayers for their government and other aid agencies to ban aid to ‘developing’ countries,” wrote Mbofana.

    “This aid has done nothing, but create such dependency that we are no longer innovative enough to stand on our own.”

    This is a double-edged knife that must be handled with great care. It is true that aid has produced dependency on the part of the people receiving the aid and also on the part of the local authority whose responsibility it is to provide the assistance. The issue becomes a lot more complex if the local authority is irresponsible like the Mugabe regime and without the aid many people will suffer and many even die!

    So, instead of letting people suffer or die of want because of their own fault and/or for no fault of their own those is a position to help should help in the hope that the beneficiaries will use the opportunity to seek a solution to their misfortune. There is no doubt that we in the Third World have failed to make the most of the slack time donors allowed us and there is no doubt that we are paying dearly for it!

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  11. @ Jon Chan

    The people elected MDC leaders on the understanding that they, MDC leaders, will bring about the democratic changes. Implementing the reforms were going to be done by changing the laws and structures of state - one can only do this if they are in parliament.

    The role of the people is to hold those in public office to account. It is my role, in this case, to hold MDC leaders to account for failing to implement even one democratic reform during the GNU. I am holding them to account.

    As for you, you clearly have no idea what the role of the leaders and the people is in a healthy and functional democracy. I hope you do now!

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