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NewsDay

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Survival instinct has the last word!

Opinion & Analysis
Following last Friday’s nomination of candidates for the coming elections, Zimbabwe is now firmly on the road to polls – to decide the future of our country for at least the next five years.

Following last Friday’s nomination of candidates for the coming elections, Zimbabwe is now firmly on the road to polls – to decide the future of our country for at least the next five years.

Landscape with Tangai Chipangura

This period leading to election day is critical to the determination of our destiny.

We should, therefore, as a nation, work together to ensure that we bring hope and not despair; fruit and not harm; prosperity and not more poverty to our country.

This country has suffered immensely and unnecessarily in the past decade or so – because we knowingly have not done the right thing during this crucial period.

Politicians have wantonly abused people’s constitutional right to choose leaders of their choice and the country has endured the painful consequences of disputed polls. The consequences have come in the form of violence and bloodshed; economic decay and debilitating poverty; restlessness and hatred pervading the nation.

It is no fallacy that Zimbabweans are, by nature, a peace-loving people, but this God-given attribute has in the past 12 or so years, been stolen from us by power-hungry politicians who have, driven by nothing else but shameless greed, sacrificed the lives of millions of our people for selfish ends.

If we allow them again to manipulate us into giving away our rights to determine our own destiny, we will no doubt find ourselves in the same political and economic cesspit in which we have squatted in the forgettable past decade.

We should be encouraged by the new voting system put in place by the new Constitution which provides for protection of the voter through privacy during voting. The electorate, especially our rural folk, should not be fooled by anyone that their vote can be seen by anyone else who may want to punish them later.

We should all go out to vote without fear — only favour of political leaders of our choice.

Politicians that threaten you in order to make you vote for them do not have your interests at heart and certainly do not deserve your vote.

We must draw lessons from the violence, rigging and coercion that we witnessed during the recent party primaries. Politicians, whether Zanu PF or from the MDC parties, that won the primaries through these means should be dumped. They are the authors of national misfortunes!

But the key requisite that allows us to exercise our constitutional right to vote is a peaceful environment. Politicians from across the political divide agreed and their leaders signed a document prescribing conditions for such an environment to prevail.

The document is called the Global Political Agreement (GPA) in which the issue of a political roadmap was agreed on. The roadmap was further singularly dealt with by facilitators of the inclusive government (Sadc), culminating in more signatures being appended by negotiators from the three main political parties who agreed on the electoral roadmap.

Some of the issues contained in those agreements include the implementation of security sector, media and other electoral reforms — and also the removal of sanctions.

We have so far seen some movement in the areas of media reforms, where media space was slightly opened, removal of sanctions, where almost all, but a handful of individuals and companies, have been removed from the list.

What we have not seen, but which is clearly the most crucial ingredient for a peaceful electoral environment, is the implementation of security sector reforms. These reforms basically means that soldiers and their guns should not be allowed to roam the countryside because their presence and their weapons intimidate people.

What we have seen, however, is that instead of confining these men and women of war to the barracks, where they belong unless the country is at war, the soldiers have been and continue to be deployed among the electorate.

What is more is that their commanders continue to publicly threaten the electorate. They make dangerous pronouncements to the effect that if people do not vote for a certain political party, the country will return to war.

These are some of the issues that other electoral contestants complain about. Even if they eventually were to be beaten through fair vote, these contestants would dispute the results citing intimidation of voters. Who would blame them?

It is difficult to understand why President Robert Mugabe and his party, Zanu PF, should expect their political opponents to accept a situation where they should be allowed to use national security forces and public media outlets to openly fight in their corner in political contests.

Zanu PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo was over the weekend asked for comment by a newspaper for a story revealing a scheme by his party to use soldiers to stem internal party strife and he said: “The (Zanu PF) code of conduct specifically says that such behaviour (bhoramusango) will see the involved members being disciplined by the party or any other institution in place.”

What “other institution in place” outside the party disciplinary machinery is available for use by Zanu PF Cde. Gumbo?

What our politicians, Zanu PF and the MDCs alike, should learn to understand is that Zimbabweans may be a peace-loving, tame and tolerant lot who value peace; but the survival instinct has the last word.

That, today presence the real threat to national stability — hunger, poverty and insensitive arrogance by those who rule!