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Title: Zimbabwe elections: The people have spoken Post by: News on August 01, 2013, 10:10:44 PM http://www.herald.co.zw/comment-the-people-have-spoken/ (http://www.herald.co.zw/comment-the-people-have-spoken/)
(http://www.rastafarispeaks.com/bp/PRESIDENT-MUGABE-AT-STATE-HOUSE-YESTERDAY.jpg) August 02, 2013 SCRATCH the cub drew out the lioness, goes an African adage. Zimbabweans have done just that by peacefully going about their election business and endorsing President Mugabe and Zanu-PF on a scale not seen since the first harmonised elections in 1980. Indications are President Mugabe will sweep to power with a colossal margin as his party scores a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly. By delivering such a vote to President Mugabe, Zimbabweans scratched MDC-T and its backers who were praying for violence which is always their scapegoat whenever their mannequin Morgan Tsvangirai comes short at the polls. The absence of cases of violence has thrown MDC-T and its handlers off kilter which is why they precariously hang onto trying to attack the voters’ roll as if it is compiled at Zanu-PF headquarters. It should be stated from the outset that the Registrar-General of Voters’ Office falls under the Ministry of Home Affairs which was overseen by ministers drawn from Zanu-PF and MDC-T throughout the life of the inclusive Government. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is made up of commissioners chosen from lists submitted by the three parties in Government, Zanu-PF, MDC-T and the MDC; and even Commission chairperson Justice Rita Makarau was agreed on by the three parties in Government, with her appointment to the Commission being announced by none other than MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, who was given the unofficial role of spokesperson for the principals after their weekly Monday meetings. It thus comes as a surprise that today; MDC-T denies ownership of the electoral process it has been party to. The party is; ironically, keen to pilfer whatever positives emanated from the inclusive Government as its achievements while disowning imaginary failures as Zanu-PF’s doing. This has, for instance, seen MDC-T leaders ridiculously claim credit for the introduction of the multi-currency regime that was introduced by then Acting Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa on January 29 2009, a whole two weeks before the formation of the inclusive Government on February 13 that year. That aside, what has been very telling is the division between Zanu-PF and MDC-T on the conduciveness of the electoral environment. While Zanu-PF, which had a clear and powerful message for voters spent the campaign period articulating the indigenisation and economic empowerment agenda to the people; MDC-T tried to mask its paucity of ideas and dearth of policy with wild claims of vote-rigging. The same division is seen between African observers represented by the African Union, Sadc and Comesa observer teams on one hand; and Westerners represented by self-proclaimed big brother, the US that continues to echo the MDC-T’s wild claims even in the face of a climbdown by its envoy here, Mr Bruce Wharton, who hailed preparations for the harmonised elections. It is not a coincidence that Zanu-PF and Africa are reading from the same page, while MDC-T, its Western allies and the coterie of NGOs they sponsor differ. Therein is the contestation in Zimbabwe, pitting Zanu-PF representing the rights of African people to social, political, cultural and economic sovereignty; and the MDC-T representing a prostitution of these rights to its Western handlers. We are glad Zimbabweans showed their disdain by resoundingly rejecting the MDC-T’s quisling politics. We hope the party leadership have read the mood of the people and will look in the mirror and change their ways in line with their party’s mantra. The observer teams should be alive to this scenario, the MDC-T does not have genuine concerns, it is flying a kite for its Western masters who desperately want to tarnish the elections in a bid to try for what they failed to achieve in the ballot box. It is high time westerners were put in their place. It’s also high time the MDC-T realised polls are won by compelling programmes not mindless complaints. The people have spoken. http://www.herald.co.zw/comment-the-people-have-spoken/ (http://www.herald.co.zw/comment-the-people-have-spoken/) |