Elections without reforms? For crying out loud, will these political gladiators ever give us a break? In whose interest are such elections purported to be? Zimbabweans?
For years now, opposition parties have cried foul over electoral processes in Zimbabwe, but no one listened. The electoral landscape was terribly skewed in favour of Zanu PF and no other party stood a whisker of a chance. But, come June 2008 Zanu PF pulled out all the stops and what resulted was one of the most shameful sham elections Africa had ever known.
There is no point in going for elections if you do not desire for the people to exercise their right to freedom of choice and if you are not going to accept the people’s choice! That’s not how elections run. Rather turn the country into a one-party state or a monarchy and rule for ever. Do not pretend to be a democrat when you are an out-and-out autocrat. You will not fool anyone.
Shocked by the unrestrained, self-indulgent debauchery and callous abductions and butchery of innocent souls in the period leading to the June 2008 run-off elections, the world and Africa in particular, took a step back and said the June 2008 debacle was not an election.
It was not an election because it was simply an unprecedented barbaric maiming and killing spree devoid of even the most basic norms of civilisation. The African Union (AU) held a meeting in Egypt and stated in no uncertain terms that June 2008 was unacceptable and it would not recognise the result. It further went on to ask the regional body, Sadc, to engage and help Zimbabwe back to sanity and Thabo Mbeki was duly deployed to help.
Grave inadequacies in the electoral processes were identified and all parties agreed to the recommended reforms and signed the Global Political Agreement (GPA). Now come the implementation of the recommended reforms and the usual suspects begin dragging their feet and sabotaging the reform process, rendering the Government of National Unity (GNU) partially inoperable! The same culprits go onto the pulpit and shout out loud that the GNU is not working. Of course it’s not working! Stop undermining it and implement its letter and spirit and it will work! How can anyone with a brain hold 14 million lives to ransom because of some fancied notion of political supremacism? What shameful duplicity!
Do these people know that the greater majority of Zimbabweans don’t give two hoots about what these politicians think they are or about politics? They simply want to get on with their lives. This is adult delinquency!
How can a sane person advocate for elections without reforms? In pursuance of what . . . another June 2008? Why insult the people of Zimbabwe, again and again?
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What is the meaning of such an election to Zimbabwe, Sadc, the AU and the world at large? For three years these gladiators have been arrogantly pussy-footing on reforms and not implementing agreed reforms while shouting themselves hoarse about side-issues and now they have the temerity to tell us that the GNU is not working and they want elections without reforms! If Lord Carrington could set up an electoral process which gave independence to Zimbabwe within three months, why does it take more than three years to simply factor in incremental reforms? If South Africa put in place electoral frameworks that led to their democratic renaissance and one of the best and democratic constitutions in the world in under a year, why is the Zimbabwean process dragging? We are being sold a dummy here, by power-addicts with an inherent determination to cling to power at any cost.
They do not want reforms because, like houseflies, they cannot survive in a sanitised environment. The worst thing you can do to flies, other than to spray them with an insecticide, is to clean up and sterilise your environment.
Calls for elections without reforms are disingenuous and are designed by our Grim Reapers to provide the environment for ultimate treachery and perfidy. Such elections serve the selfish interests of those particular individuals, not of Zimbabweans. It’s just not true that these people want elections. If they did they would have implemented the terms and conditions of the GPA and they would not have continued to disrupt Copac, and we would have had the elections by now.
President Zuma is correct in saying that they will not recognise the results of elections without reforms.
