Tsvangirai Willingly Participated In A Rigged Election | OPINION
16 January 2017
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Nomusa Garikayi | Did you know that Movement for Democratic Change leaders did not just know but were 100% certain that Zanu PF was going to rig the 2013 elections months before the July vote and yet still participated in the elections for selfish reasons? If you did not know, here it is confirmation from the horse’s mouth.

In his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of tyranny in Zimbabwe, former MDC – Ncube Senator and Minister of Education in the GNU, David Coltart, gave details of how Zanu PF flouted the electoral rules, it clear the upcoming 2013 elections would not be free and fair. Meanwhile talks of uniting the two MDC factions to fight the elections as one were going nowhere.

“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.”

Let us remember that MDC was elected on the promise of bringing democratic change and by failing to get any reforms implemented during the GNU and then giving legitimacy to an illegal process, MDC were betraying the people who elected them. They paid lip-service to bringing democratic change, just as Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs have paid lip-service to freedom, justice and human rights for all.

“Kwavari mhiko, mudonzo wepwa, wonzedzara unodya!” as one would say in Shona. (To Zimbabwe’s politicians, principles are sugar cane walking stick, you eat them when are hungry!)

Although MDC leaders were certain the elections would be rigged, they told the people the exact opposite. It was not until noon of 31 July 2013, voting day, that Tsvangirai admitted “Zanu PF stole the elections”, with feigned disappointment of one who did not know this would happen. Soon thereafter the all MDC factions vowed they will not take part in any future elections without implementing the democratic reforms first. “No reform, no elections!” they said.

MDC factions have boycotted the by-elections but have long since they will participate in the national elections although the accept that no meaningful reforms have been implemented. Just as happened in the 2013 elections, MDC leaders take part in the elections knowing the elections will be rigged for the sake of winning the few seats Zanu PF allow the opposition to win.

Again, just as happen before the July 2013 elections, MDC and other opposition leaders will pretend the 2018 elections not be a betrayal of the people whose right to a meaningful vote will be denied once again. The opposition leaders are claiming that the formation of an opposition coalition, an aggressive voter registration exercise and other opposition strategies will stop Zanu PF rigging the vote. All nonsense!

In the March 2008 vote Zanu PF managed to get Tsvangirai’s 73% share of the vote, by Mugabe’s own inadvertent admission, reduced to 47% after five weeks of “recounting” 5 million votes! The regime has since improved on its vote rigging tricks and has billions of dollars looted from Marange to bankroll its schemes. How does a coalition or voter registration stop NIKUV, the Israeli company paid a princely sum of US$10 million in 2013 to corrupt voters’ roll, doing so again!

The status quo suits Mugabe and Zanu PF, he and his cronies are enjoying absolute power and the influence and luxuries it brings. He would not want any reforms implemented and risk lose power.

Tsvangirai and his opposition friends will continue to make a big song and dance about fighting for democratic change to help calm the restive populous but do nothing, even when presented with the golden opportunity to do as happened during the GNU. They will take part in the elections knowing they will be rigged; they are content fighting for the scraps Zanu PF throws at them and the bragging rights to call themselves “main opposition party”.

The big losers in Zimbabwe are the ordinary Zimbabweans whose lives hell-on-earth after 37 years of this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship. Unemployment has soared to 90%, millions now live in abject poverty and, so far, over 30 000 have been murdered in cold blood by the regime for selfish political gains. Another rigged election in 2018 will mean a worsen economic meltdown and deepening political crisis.

Socially, politically and economically, Zimbabwe cannot afford another rigged election in 2018 because the country will pay the price for such folly with the usual sweat and treasure but increasing in human misery and lost human lives!

If there are going to be free, fair and credible elections in 2018 it is the ordinary people themselves, who must to demand the implementation of the democratic reforms. Senator David Coltart’s admission that the opposition are now more interested in fighting over main opposition party bragging rights that democratic change is just one more piece of evidence that opposition is not fighting in the people’s corner.

Mugabe has thoroughly corrupted opposition politicians like Tsvangirai as he has corrupted his own Zanu PF thugs; the opposition politicians are not just run with the hare and hunt with the hounds, they are hounds and are actively hunting the hare. The sooner the people of Zimbabwe wise up to the reality that opposition will never ever implement democratic reforms to secure free and fair elections, the sooner the country will start the important task of digging itself out of the hell-hole Mugabe landed us in.

 

0 Replies to “Tsvangirai Willingly Participated In A Rigged Election | OPINION”

  1. We should have held MDC to account for selling out in July 2013, they would not be doing it again next year!

  2. Supposing you know, what role did you play, or did you not play to ensure implementation? What was Mugabe’s reference to “the marriage is not working?” There were some many things that required attention; the consistitution, the economy, currency, social fabric, and electroral reform.

    You have already forgotten that the economy grew! You dont remember the opposition fight that brought about US$.

    Tsvangirai was party of the government of national unity….he was not the president. Mugabe was not worried about anything else except resisting electoral reform and ensuring state security and judiciary was tightly under his armpit.

    I will not discuss about his retirement package in the form of a house, medical aid etc because thus how negotiated, at least when you negotiate you contract of employment you need to learn to do it better.

    Chinoshamisira nemba ye4m yapihwa former priminister chii, chinoshamisira ne medical aid yapihwa former PM chii? Ma war vet anopihwa marii? Dai maka supporter MDC to ensure reforms were achieved musiri kuchema saizvozvo.

    Why cry kunaTsvangirai, ndiye Mwari here? Why can you stand up and fight better sezvo uchigona kuchinja ma electoral reform. Akatadza chizama wo iwewe tione paunosvika

  3. Are you sure the $4 million Highlands mansion was not part of the bribe for Tsvangirai to do nothing about the reforms?

    MDC had the chance to implement the reforms during the GNU, the trouble with people like you is you have never understood how the reforms were supposed to be implemented and concluded it could not be done! Tsvangirai sold-out, get used to it!

  4. The NCA candidate in the Bikita West by-election was beaten and left for dead by Zanu PF thugs. What is important here is that Professor Lovemore Madhuku and his NCA clearly did not know that Zanu PF uses dirty tricks to rig elections including violence. Well the beating must have drummed some sense into NCA heads; suddenly “No reform, no elections!” makes sense!

  5. The demand for democractic election stretch back to the creation of MDC. The target sanctions which are a cry foul remains in pkace. Had MDC campaigned for changes in such measure the we would say it took the foot off the pedal since 2000 to date. They have always demanded implementation of fair election but who could listen to them?

    Boycotting the ekection was giving Zanu pf a win on a silver platter.

  6. MDC never screened any of its member, irrrspective of where they started, it was and remains a movement. Those who do not fit dropped out of the fight showed their true colours. Prof Johnathan Moyo and Prof Madhuku once fought for democray, does that make Prof Moyo something other than a traitor.

    The fact that Coltart turns his back against a movement fight democracy fulfills that a leopard never changes its spots. We know that he was a sealous scot and when democratic war intensified, he retreated to his spot with sensitive infornation gathered under the guise of a comrade in the fight for democracy.

    He was, he is and remains a traitor and a sellout

  7. Mr. Tsvangirai was the Primeminister of the GNU. He had a contract with terms incorporating post retirement package. The house that Mr Tsvangirai used as the preminister was part of the arrangement not a gift from Zanu Pf but from his contract of employment. He did not receive $70 000 from Zanu pf but it was a contractual responsibility that is enforceable in the court of law.

    Judging Mr Tsvangirai on the basis of his retirement package has nowthing to do with democracy and it enforcement.

    Secondly, Mr Tsvangirai could not enforce any free and fair election as he did not have any power over the IEC which has been manipulated by Zanu from time immemorial.

    Lastly, the electorate, including you and me let ourselves down by assuming it is the job of Tsvangirai only to liberate us.

    In Uganda or is it Kenya, women have resolved to deny their men/husbands sex unless they register to vote, and vote against the corrupt governement. We need a whip to fight for our democracies

  8. Senator Coltart has always been treated with respect by MDC members, he is now a Selous Scout because he has said some home truths you do not like! How typical!

  9. Well tell us then why MDC leaders participated in the elections they were warned will be rigged!

  10. If Zanu PF creates its own opposition parties to take part in elections to give the flawed process credibility then let these created opposition lie to the people that the elections are free, fair and credible. Why is Tsvangirai doing the Created opposition’s dirty work?

    MDC claim they will deliver free, fair and credible elections, they have clearly failed to do so because Zanu PF keeps rigging the elections. They are no helping to end this by pretending they have found ways of stopping Zanu PF rigging elections when they have not!

    Zanu PF does not need to create any more opposition parties to do its dirty work of providing credibility Tsvangirai and others are doing a fine job! Tsvangirai was paid well for his work so far; he has the $4 million mansion and $70 000 for his hospital bills, etc.!

  11. With no reforms, boycotting the 2013 elections was the “obvious” option; boycotting the 2018 elections is the only option. Whilst it took someone with foresight a few months and even years ahead of the 2013 elections to see the process was flawed; the blatant vote rigging in the 2013 elections have exposed the process even the blind can see it is flawed. There is no excuse for taking part in an election knowing it is flawed and will be rigged. None!

    So, to Dr Morgan Tsvangirai, Tendai Biti, Professor Welshman Ncube and all the other MDC leaders who are now preparing to take part in the 2018 elections; what happened to “No reform, no elections!”?

    By taking part in the 2018 elections, with not even one reform in place, each opposition participant is accepting per se that Zanu PF will be allowed to use every trick in the book to rig the vote and therefore no evidence of vote rigging to discredit the elections will be entertained, no matter how glaring and pertinent. By taking part in a flawed election process, knowing and having been warned it is flawed, the opposition is giving legitimacy to the process.

  12. i m saying the intention of this article is mischief, and typical written by Zanu Pf and or its proxies. The fact that he participated does not mean the elections were fair. It would not mean that the he said the playing field was even.

    The alternarive, wch was to boycott was no and will never be ideal…..because Zanu pf creates its own opposition in the form of Shakespear Maya and the like

  13. This is such a slanted view which gives the impression that Tsvangirai is the root of the problem. And it’s not convincing. As propaganda it might sway and confuse a few gullible people.

  14. It seems to me, you are the one who is lost and confused. The issue here is that MDC politicians were aware Zanu PF was going to the 2013 elections and the “obvious” thing they should have done was to demand the implementation of the reforms and boycott the elections until they are implemented. We know MDC took part in the elections with no reforms in place and, as expected, Zanu PF rigged the elections. These are the events we are talking about and not the 2000 referendum!

  15. You are such a genius but you have your facts mixed up. For a start, the constitutional fight has been ongoing since 2000 culminating into the rejection of the constitution that was rejected at a constittutional referendum, MDC and other critics campaigned for a NO vote.

    During the GNU that fight continued both in and outside parliament. When Mugabe pronounced the marriage was not working, he meant the fight over the constitution was hot, ongoing and nasty.

    The current constitution was enacted during GNU. It does not allow rigging of elections and limits the president to 2 terms in office.

    A dictator does not obey any constitution, irrespective of how good it was crafted. Enforcing the constitution is a function of other independent organs the state. What could you do differently as an opposition?

  16. Were any of those people ever “interested” in the truth of what happened in 2008? If they were what lessons did they learn from what happened then?

    The events Senator Coltart was talking about above did not take place in 2008 but 2013 and it is not ancient history or hogwash because it is already happening again now. MDC leaders legitimized the illegal 2013 election process by taking part because they wanted to win the few seats Zanu PF was going to give away. For your own information, they are doing this again by agreeing to take part in the 2018 elections.

    Which part of legitimizing an illegal process do you not understand? The very fact that we are still discussing this issue after all the country has gone through and all that has been said on the matter shows that some people in Zimbabwe are brain-dead and you are one of them!

  17. We have been through this ground before, haven’t we?

    The description going with the photograph clearly states that Tsvangirai started GNU talks with Zanu PF in April 2008, within weeks after the March 2008 elections . SADC proposed the GNU after the July 2008 presidential run-off. So President Thabo Mbeki facilitated the GNU but only to finish what Tsvangirai had already started.

    Even if President Mbeki was wholly responsible for the GNU it does not change the act that MDC was wholly responsible for failing to get even one reform implemented and then taking part in an election they knew would be rigged.

    Even if Senator Coltart was a Selous Scout and was/is CIO what he said about MDC discarding the fight for democratic change for bragging rights as the opposition party is still true and valid.

    You are just one of those people who refuse to accept MDC are sell-outs and so you bury your head in the sand. It is a great pity that naive people like you have a vote, what a waste!

  18. MDC promised the nation democratic change when they first entered Zimbabwe politics in 1999 and today 17 years later, I cannot name even one democratic change they have brought although they had many opportunities to bring about meaningful change. We the people have been hopeless at holding the leaders to account for all their unfulfilled promises.

    Very few people have ever understood what the democratic reforms were really about and so they could not hold the MDC leaders to account for failing to deliver the changes. When the MDC leaders bargained the changes for bribes the people did not complain because they had no clue what was happening.

    What is disheartening is that even now when some one has explained what the reforms are about, what the consequences for failing to implement them are and, worst of all, how MDC leaders themselves admitted that they sold-out and yet still many people still do not get it. Senator David Coltart’s admission has been water off a duck’s back just as President Mugabe’s admission that US$ 15 billions were “swindled”.

    With an electorate that is hardly moved if at all by information, facts and reasons, even when it impacts them directly, it is clear why we are in a serious mess. Still it is inexcusable that any Zimbabweans should still trust MDC leaders to implement reforms when they have sold-out on the matter!

  19. You are right in your own wrong. Can you learn and understand that both the book and the article were authored by the selous scots and CIO.

    Was the GNU not facilitated by Thabo mbeki? Kungo maive musati mazvarwa vana Guramatunhu

  20. This article is nonsensical and ancient history. Most people are no longer interested in the 2008 hogwash. Why are you so obsessed with the past we can not change. Come up with ideas relevant current times.

  21. If Morgan Tsvangirai was already having secret talks with Zanu PF to form a GNU in April 2008 as stated above, this shows MDC was not interested in making sure the people’s right to a meaningful vote was important. And yet securing the sanctity of a free vote is at the very heart of democratic change!

  22. The people of Zimbabwe see things in monochrome, black or white, right or wrong, hero or villain. It took them 20 years or so debunk President Mugabe from the national liberation hero first class pedestal they had placed him to accept that he was an incompetent, corrupt and murderous tyrant. MDC are now these people’s heroes and the clear evidence from Senator Coltart that MDC leader are not interested in delivering democratic change will not change the people’s trust in MDC.

    The national economy was on the decline within the first five years of President Mugabe taking office and by the mid 1990s, 15 years later, it was haemorrhaging wealth alarmingly. By 1987 when he signed his unity accords with PF Zapu, he had already murdered in cold blood over 20 000 innocent Zimbabweans to foster his one-party state. The people ignored all the mounting evidence for years because having considered him a hero they were not going to be moved by reason or facts regardless how compelling them happen to be.

    Once the people accepted President Mugabe was a bad guy, they have used him as the yard stick to decide who are the good guys. As far as these simple-minded people are concerned, anyone who is anti-Mugabe is a GOOD GUY. MDC leaders are good guys because they have called for democratic change – the fact that they have failed to deliver even when they had a golden chance to do so is irrelevant, as far as our binary minded people are concerned.

    Mai Mujuru and her fellow Zim PF friends were welcomed into the opposition camp the day they fell out with President Mugabe, they were anti-Mugabe now and they 34 years as part and parcel of the corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF regime was forgotten. Simpletons like Morgan Tsvangirai even talked of Mai Mujuru being a democratic who had her Damascene moment, although there is no evidence to support a Zim PF government will implement any reforms. If Zim PF was elected
    they will remodel the Zanu PF dictatorship in Mai Mujuru’s name and image.

    Even rogue war veterans like Chris Mutsvangwa and Mahiya who have made it clear they want to remove Mugabe and replace him with Mnangagwa but otherwise keep the Zanu PF dictatorship with all its dictatorial powers have too been embraced by our myopic people as partners in the struggle because of their anti-Mugabe stance.

    Compare to Mai Mujuru and the rogue war veterans Tsvangirai and his MDC friends are national treasures to binary minded people and Senator Coltart’s admission proving MDC leaders are hounds will fall on deaf ears in Zimbabwe. How else will you explain why MDC still continue to enjoy public support regardless of the party’s sorry performance record during the GNU?