By Patrick Guramatunhu| If you put one or two crabs in a shallow open box, they will probably get out. However, the more crabs you put in, the less the chance of any of them ever escaping. They will be expending more and more of their energy clambering over each other than getting out. Indeed, many will die with their pincers clocked on another’s leg!
The story of ZCTU telling the long-time ally, MDC Alliance, to shape up or ship out filled me with great joy.
“We must clearly express that there are irregularities in the conduct of the elections and that they can’t be free and fair. We must tell the opposition parties to pull out of the election,” said ZCTU President Peter Mutasa.
“We need to engage and tell them our position and clearly explain the advantages of following us, if they don’t listen, then they should not complain immediately after Mnangagwa is announced the winner.”
This was new territory given Zimbabwe’s civic organisation’s nauseating tradition of appeasing and hobnobbing with those in positions of power and authority at the expense of truth, justice and the down trodden. But, now I can see my celebration was premature!
“The Catholic Church-run Silveira House in partnership with other churches yesterday said they were organising a multi-party gathering for all the 23 presidential candidates to inculcate a sense of political tolerance and mutual respect,” reported News Day.
“The objective of the multiparty interface is to inculcate a sense of multi-party democracy and a spirit of mutual respect in a context of differing political opinions,” said Father Fredrick Chiromba, who is the secretary general for Catholic Bishops Conference.
The challenge this nation is facing right now is that these elections are being held with no democratic reforms in place and thus Zanu PF is enjoying its usual carte blanche powers to rig the elections. There is no free public media.
ZEC has failed to register 1.4 million out of the targeted 7 million possible voters and thus denying nearly 25% the right to vote because the voter registration exercise was started very late. Voter registration should have started January 2015 at the very latest but only started September 2017.
Worse still, ZEC has failed to produce a clean and verified voters’ roll at least a month before nomination day, as is demanded by law, for the same reason – no time. We know the failure to produce a verified voters’ roll resulted in nearly one million voters (Mugabe won that year by just over one million votes) being denied the vote because their details were not in the constituency voters’ roll they expected them to be.
The failure to allow the voters adequate time to verify their details this year (10 days were allocated and less than 1 million of the 5.6 million did) will mean the same problem will happen again only worse since voters’ details are only available in one and only one polling station.
In 2013, the lack of verified voters’ roll allowed Zanu PF loyalists to bussed from one polling station to the next casting multiple votes. There is no doubt the same will happen again this year.
Zanu PF is rigging these elections!
With all due respect Father Chiromba; how is this “multiparty interface to inculcate a sense of multi-party democracy and a spirit of mutual respect” going to stop Zanu PF stealing these elections? How!
What good is this mythical “sense of multi-party democracy” when elections are held with no clean and verified voters’ roll?
At a time when the nation is desperately trying to come up with a consensus position to pull out of participating in utterly meaningless elections it is very disappointing that some people are hell-bend on holding the nation back!
After 38 years of rigged elections, one would have thought very one, absolutely every one, will be focusing their time, energy and treasure on making sure we end this scourge of rigged elections. It seems, the majority of Zimbabweans have resigned themselves to rigged elections and they have their crab claws on any wishing to escape! – SOURCE: zsdemocrats.blogspot.co.uk