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Tendai Moyo
WHEN results for mayoral contests held in various towns in Zimbabwe were published, I could not help but ponder what MDC-T and its Western backers could say about the naked mayoral results. When the harmonised election results started filtering in, showing that MDC-T has been thoroughly walloped, the party and its supposedly ubiquitous Western observers dismissed the election as a “huge farce”.
The self arrogated arbiters and Commissioners of Oaths of global elections began to throw around shreds of unsubstantiated electoral flaws such as alleged bussing of people, the late provision of the voters’ roll, the use of traditional leaders to commandeer voters, claiming these marred the elections in Zimbabwe.
Even when the African Union and the Sadc Observer Missions endorsed the elections as free, peaceful and credible, MDC-T and its Western arbiters remained intransigent calling for fresh elections.
Although they toyed around with claims of electoral fraud they patently failed to produce incriminating evidence before the courts of law and their case tumbled like a deck of cards.
With egg on their faces, MDC-T and its paternalistic Western backers dug in and declared that they would not recognise the new Government of President Mugabe.
MDC-T secretary-general Tendai Biti could not hide his disbelief over the magnitude of his party’s comprehensive defeat.
He found it unfathomable that the people of Matabeleland could vote for Zanu-PF candidates and as a result concluded without evidence that the elections were massively rigged by Zanu-PF.
Now that their own senior officials, in the mould of their elected councillors, have freely and overwhelmingly voted for Zanu-PF mayors in some towns, what kind of electoral allegations would MDC-T throw against Zanu-PF?
I could foresee MDC-T handlers typing dossiers into the night alleging the electoral theft by Zanu-PF at the council chambers.
The dossiers would chronicle how their councillors were forcefully bussed by Zanu-PF officials to council chambers and forced to vote for the ruling party’s mayoral candidates.
I could see Morgan Tsvangirai holding an urgent Press conference frothing in the mouth and telling the “international community” that the councillors were coerced to plead illiteracy and had other people voting for them.
Tsvangirai would lobby for an extra-ordinary Sadc summit on Zimbabwe where he would present the dossier detailing how NIKUV came at council offices 10 years ago to tamper with the mayoral electoral documents.
In minutes, the United States and its European acolytes would, in unison, dismiss the mayoral contests in Harare calling for a fresh election.
The impetuous westerners would expand their sanctions regimen on Zimbabwe and would warn their citizens from travelling to Zimbabwe until the mayoral electoral theft is restored to the MDC-T.
The Westerners would claim that their intelligence units have informed them of the electoral flaws witnessed in Harare during the mayoral contests.
The British government would use the intelligence to quickly prepare a resolution it would submit at the United Nations Security Council preferring military strikes against Zimbabwe for failing to hold credible mayoral contests.
It therefore came as no surprise that the MDC-T came out with guns blazing claiming that their councillors were bribed to vote for Zanu-PF mayors?
The pro-Western party holds a blinkered and infantile view that if it loses an election, that election was rigged. It is all in an effort to explain a clear electoral defeat.
Empirical evidence plainly shows that in Redcliff, out of the seven MDC-T councillors, three of them voted for a Zanu-PF mayoral candidate.
Added to the three votes of the Zanu-PF councillors, the renegade MDC-T councillors handed victory to Zanu-PF. Similarly, three MDC-T councillors in Victoria Falls voted for a Zanu-PF candidate in addition to the three votes of Zanu-PF councillors to give victory to the Zanu-PF candidate.
MDC-T should stand guided that one plus one will give us two. Period!
A cursory look at the recent electoral debacle by the MDC-T councillors reveals that there are malignant and poignant reasons why the councillors decided to vote for Zanu-PF mayors against their own party candidates.
The onus is on MDC-T to interrogate why the people and the councillors have decided to snub the pro-western party. Instead of wasting their time crying foul over patently free, credible and fair electoral processes, MDC-T should do the elementary thing of self introspection.
Who can fault the ordinary people for resoundingly voting for President Robert Mugabe if senior MDC-T officials have affirmatively voted for Zanu-PF mayors? Permutations are high that even Tsvangirai himself voted for President Mugabe in the 31 July plebiscite. Surely, who would not want to have a share of our God given fertile land or equity in business?
Online Reporter