By Nomusa Garikai- Professor Lovemore Madhuku, leader of the opposition party the National Constitution Assembly, should wash his mouth with bleach; the foul insults coming from him are intolerable.
“Go to a by-election, you find that the majority of those who turn out to vote, vote for them notwithstanding the economic hardships, notwithstanding political repression. When next time around we have an election people must vote out this government that’s the way to go,” said Madhuku.
All the reputable election observers in last year’s elections have confirmed there was political coercion and other vote rigging problems.
“Notably, major shortcomings in the pre-election environment impacted on the free expression of the will of electors, state resources were misused in favour of the incumbent and coverage by state media was heavily biased in favour of the ruling party,” stated the EU Election Mission final report.
“Further, the electoral commission lacked full independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner. The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability.
“Finally, the restrictions on political freedoms, the excessive use of force by security forces and abuses of human rights in the post-election period undermined the corresponding positive aspects during the pre-election campaign. As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards.”
What is infuriating here is that Madhuku and the rest of his fellow opposition politicians knew the elections were flawed and illegal, they knew ZEC had failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll although this was a legal requirement. Worse still, they also knew that by participating they will be giving some modicum of credibility to an otherwise illegal process as David Coltart readily admitted in his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of tyranny in Zimbabwe.
“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,” wrote 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 was MDC minister in the 2008 to 2013 GNU; they failed to implement even one reform in five years although this was the primary purpose of the GNU.
“We must invest heavily in conscientizing the majority of our people. I believe the only way forward for this country is to make people alert because despite what these people in government are doing they still enjoy support,” continued Madhuku.
What we need is to warn our people against supporting corrupt and incompetent opposition politicians who have not only sold-out on implementing the reforms but are now participating in flawed and illegal elections and giving the process credibility. The sell-outs even have the chutzpah to blame the people, the victims of their betrayal, for the rigged elections!