TABANI MOYO | HARARE - Nov 10 2010 20:22
There is a chilling debate which is going in circles in Zimbabwe on whether the country will be subjected to the next general election next year or not.
President Robert Mugabe fired the first salvos when he made a public decree that the elections will be held early next year so that his party can kick the MDC out of government.
He was responding to the MDC moves calling upon the United Nations, European Union and South Africa not to recognise the appointments of ambassadors by President Mugabe.
The cold war’s merits and/or demerits will constitute another debate for another forum.
The new frenzy on the need to hold elections next year raises more questions than answers. The two political parties are in agreement that Zimbabwe is ripe for an election next year.
President Mugabe impresses that he wants to stop MDC “nonsense” in government whilst the MDC posits that an election will see them gaining state power as Premier Morgan Tsvangirai was once quoted in the press arguing that he had agreed with Mugabe that the loser should accept the results forthwith.
I hold a position that if an election is to be held next year, it will be a symbolic election aimed at attaining a ritual process which entails the sacrifice of innocent blood without a befitting reflection of the voting patterns.
In such a case one will ask if it is necessary for the nation to be subjected to such a symbolic process which does not lead to any meaningful change in the people’s lives.
Within this realm, the political order would have taken the people of Zimbabwe for granted that they are going for an election when the result, on the other hand, of that same sham will be maintaining the status quo.
Is going for an election after the expiry of the GPA wrong?
The most pressing question under such a scenario will be whether the political parties are wrong to argue for an election after the expiry of the GPA or not.
The answer is never simple but the most ideal situation is that of dragging the political parties in the government of the day kicking and screaming to work together and ensure meaningful reforms to our body politic rather than subjecting the populace to another political nightmare of an election which will lead to another negotiated settlement.
Why then go through the terror of an election when all the signs and intents show that there will be a negotiated settlement after the elections if the institutions that run the election are not transformed?
The political parties should negotiate before this looming election to extend the life of the GPA to 2013 and attempt as much as is possible to sanitise the national institutions running the elections before the next plebiscite.
If one were to land from space today, s/he will be forgiven to think that the political parties have since realised that they can’t work together yesterday.
They will insist that the solution to this incompatible set-up is the holding of an election next year, deliberately forgetting that the reason for the set-up of the present- day government was due to an inconclusive election.
The political order holds that the people of Zimbabwe are already on the touch line anticipating for the next orgy of political contestations. In this country contestations are not founded on a battle for ideas — but they also sublimate into organised physical “socio-politic-militant” orientation.
There is no priced answer for anyone who attempts to answer whether an average person in Zimbabwe is ready for an election or not. The rhetoric of ending the span of the GNU next year is non-attainable though it is the most ideal one under normal circumstances.
It is a virtue of insanity to believe that the country is ready to hold a national election when it is theatrically failing to hold a genuine constitution-making process.
The pretence to hold an election by the political actors as a solution to the Zimbabwean crisis is tantamount to sanctioned state barbarism targeted at killing its people.
It’s an attempt to expose the people of Zimbabwe to the June 27 2008 organised state killings.
As a people of Zimbabwe the state has the role to protect its own. In this case an election at this moment is not one of them.
The political nonsense that is stealing national debate of enriching people’s lives should be stopped forthwith from both sides of the political divide.
It therefore smacks of hypocrisy that the president of the republic calls for an election when the present-day
electoral groundwork is characterised by the following:
- · A chaotic voters’ roll, littered with ghost voters
- · The impartiality of the electoral body being questionable
- · The muted stagnancy in the security service sector reforms
- · Single party domineering on the state media
- · Unaccounted for funds flowing from our precious minerals, which have the capacity to fund insurgent activities
- · Limited information of the number of youth graduates from the Border Gezi training centres who can easily engage in acts of fanning violence at the click of a button
- · Unreformed national institutions
But are the political parties ready for an election, notwithstanding the fact that the people of Zimbabwe do not want them anyway? I for one strongly hold that the political parties are not ready on the following grounds:
- · There are better platforms for them to measure their respective political parties’ support such as the referendum and the long overdue by-elections which are likely going to take place next year
- · It threatens party cohesion. The respective party vultures will use the opportunity to partially address the succession politics through jostling for factional representation in Parliament.
- · The scary picture of the last abortive election of June 27 2008 is still haunting party supporters specifically MDC supporters in the rural constituencies such as Manicaland and Masvingo
- · The threats of cutting short the terms of office of the serving legislature remain a threat for Zanu PF specifically and double-barrel candidate fielding threat for the MDC.
- · The “constitution making process” provided a clear indication for the people of Zimbabwe that “anything” can happen and those who terrorised the people during the June 27 2008 inconclusive election took centre stage in organising chaos during the so-called constitution-making process.
If any political party insists on holding the election under the current electoral system, then it should go on a solo expedition reminiscent of the one-man presidential runoff.
The horror of state-orchestrated violence of June 27 2008 should never be allowed to recur again in our national politics.
This is what the average person holds that if these institutions which are supposed to guarantee their safety are not transformed they will watch helplessly again as terror devours their beloved ones.
We therefore need a constitutional surgical process that will usher in a political dispensation that is tolerant and responsive to the people’s needs.
This way we can safely migrate from the transition to a political set-up that is legitimate through an election that is under the supervision of Sadc, the African Union and the international community.
Above all, the political order of the day should start appreciating the type of messaging and conditioning they are preparing this country on, that we as a people will never know of peace but perpetual party line conflict.
The political parties, which are a mythical creation anyway, are going to subdue the country into perennial combat as long as the parties exist.
This nonsense must be stopped — we are tired of it. When these political parties “chose” to work together they knew very well what they were getting themselves into.
One can therefore only conclude by calling upon the political leaders of the day to stop exposing the nation to dangers of organised killings, abductions and torture under the guise of holding an election with predetermined results.
The country is tired of the political leaders pretending to be holding an election when they are not.
A proper election is run by strong institutions in an enabling environment. Zimbabwe deserves peace and stability.
Above all, we can’t be a barren country which keeps on bothering other nations on how to run our own affairs through our actions of poor leadership and non-adherence to the documents which we authored ourselves. Our system needs a rebirth.
Tabani Moyo can be contacted at rebeljournalist@yahoo.com
