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Fungi Kwaramba Zimpapers Elections Desk
AHEAD OF next week’s plebiscite, the country’s hotels are packed with an assortment team of observers from both friendly and hostile nations, pens are poised for a dip in the inkwell to describe to their posting nations how Zimbabwe conducted its elections, but some are staying.
History with a knack for repeating itself is doing just that as pronouncements on the polls have been made even before they are held, by the usual suspects, who have also in the past made adverse conclusions on the country’s elections.
This is the second election since 2002 where the country has invited every willing observer, from the ever-intrusive Uncle Sam to the mellowing European Union, and even regional nongovernmental organisations, however, their nauseating links and association with the regime change agenda on the continent.
But that goodwill extended by President Mnangagwa in the spirit of transparency is being abused by some so-called observers who have since the turn of the millennium been rabid critics of the Zanu PF Government.
For instance, Chris Maroleng, who has been described by some as a commissar journalist for opposition parties and his accomplices, would want to masquerade as an unbiased observer when history is littered with his anti-Zimbabwe sentiments, which, upon deportation on Thursday he demonstrated without restraint or shame, baring his true colours as an off colour political activist.
Why would Zanu PF, or any government for that matter acquiesce to have the company of biased observers Good Governance Africa when they are known agents provocateurs?
As we speak, more than 60 so-called observers of Maroleng ilk are in the country disguised as observers when they have devious intentions behind the façade of observing elections. They are from the American Government-funded Carter Centre and pose a threat to the country’s elections as they have no intention to be partial and to keep to the tenets of unbiased elections observers.
Some of the members include individuals who have been involved in, or accused of, subverting constitutionally elected governments on the continent. Among the observers there is Mr Bornface Chibwana who runs an NGO in Malawi called Multiparty Democracy and was instrumental in the downfall of former Malawi President Professor Peter WaMutharika, also on the list is Mr Arthur Nanthuru who is a political activist in Malawi.
Also there is Sekonyela Mapetja Director of Lesotho Council of NGOs as part of the Short Term Observers contingent.
Regionally, most of the groups are under the Southern Defenders headed by Mr Katema Katema, a group that has caused mayhem in Lesotho and Swaziland as well.
These groups interview voters, and collect so-called electoral malpractices that they then use to mount court challenges in the event of disputed polls.
The individuals leading Western-sponsored nongovernmental organisations have been active in Lesotho and they caused serious demonstrations that resulted in the loss of the ruling party where a six-month-old opposition eventually won after a series of demonstrations.
In Swaziland, the same people under the Human Rights defenders have been causing demonstrations against the monarch.
The same can be said of organisations such as the Ellen Sirleaf Johnson Presidential Centre for Women and Development which has made bizarre and unfounded claims of violence.
What is of interest though is the ESJPCWD, which is led by former Liberian president Ms Johnson has also within its ranks the spokesperson of CCC Advocate Fadzayi Mahere, a status that some observers say makes the organisation unfit to make pronouncements on the electoral environment.
Advocate Mahere is an active member of Ms Johnson-led Amujae Initiative having been appointed on 12, 2022.
Can such an organisation be expected to be a fair umpire in the elections, can a biased referee be trusted to handle a sporting match, the answer is an emphatic NO, and that is the case even in politics where the so-called observers, some of whom are embedded in CCC have not raised a finger when the opposition has threatened to cause violence if the poll outcome does not favour them.
It is trite that observers must act in a strictly neutral manner,00 in accordance with the laws, regulations and election code of the country, they must not act in a manner prejudicial to the election system or form any relationships formed with participants in the election that may give rise to allegations of conflict of interest.
When one expects the findings of observers to be based on verifiable factual evidence that has been assessed according to agreed standards and disclosed in a factual, unemotional manner, in Zimbabwe’s context some very dirty and naughty observers have already made pronouncements based on falsehoods and rather prematurely.
According to SADC principles for Election Management, Monitoring and Observation in the SADC Region, “election observation is a process “of information gathering or fact-finding aimed at reaching an informed judgement about the credibility, legitimacy and acceptability of the electoral process and its outcome.”
But there is something sinister and obviously worrisome among some of the invited observers, they have a battered history and are therefore not fit to be allowed to observe the country’s polls.
There are fears that the presence of these agents of regime change might give the opposition a window of mischief, and one hopes that these agents some of who are called security experts are not in the country for some ulterior motives, and if they are the law surely must take its course unbiased to a person origins or station. There was a time when Zimbabwe was closed to the world, but now it has been opened, but not open to abuse or interference in its electoral processes.
Online Reporter