adminand catapults.
We take this opportunity to congratulate all those who successfully filed their nomination papers.
The voters who nominated them and many others who support their bids expect nothing but mature campaigns where the only combat will be for ideas.
To those who did not succeed, there is always next time, but they should let from the mistakes that hindered their bids.
Our message to all contestants and their backers is the same; elections are contests that can give us one of three possible outcomes: A win, a loss or a stalemate; they are not zero-sum games where victory should be ours at all costs.
By choosing to contest, every candidate put his/herself up for one of these three possible outcomes, and at the end of it all let’s respect the judgment the electorate hands us.
Lets temper our language, and bear in mind the refrain “peace begins with me, peace begins with you, peace begins with all of us.”
We all have ownership of the electoral environment.
Equally unacceptable is the tendency by some, particularly in the MDC-T, to stoke tribal tensions in the hope of garnering cheap votes, let us put ourselves up for election or rejection on the strength of the ideas we bring to the electorate.
To this end, we salute all political leaders who have hitherto called for peaceful campaigning; this should be the guiding principle for every party and/or candidate. Better still let it be the opening statement at any rally or meeting with supporters.
The forthcoming election, the 12th over the past 28 years, gives us every reason to celebrate our rich democratic tradition that gives people the chance to choose their leaders time and time again.
The poll is not unique in that it is being held under provisions of our home-grown constitution.
To put things into perspective, very few African countries, some that were independent since the 1960s have held as many suffrages as we have.
Most had their first multi-party elections during the neo-liberal decade 1990 to 2000, only because multi-lateral lending institutions made it a pre-condition for balance of payment support and aid.
While many others had leaders obtain power through bloody coups, but we Zimbabweans laid down our guns soon after driving out settler regimes, we celebrate that tradition of electing leaders through multi-party elections.
We, therefore, urge the police to be on high alert to deal decisively with any trouble causers, the world will be watching us and lets not forget there are many in the western hemisphere ready to scream blue murder at the drop of a hat.
Let’s put them all to shame by maturely and peacefully exercising our democratic right to elect leaders of our choice, the way we have always done since March 1980.
Online Reporter