adminTafara Shumba Correspondent
The MDC-T National Council’s ill-advised Friday decision to uphold its resolution to boycott the June 10 by-election has riled its grassroots supporters and some parliamentary hopefuls who had already positioned themselves to grab the vacant seats.
The supporters cannot fathom the rationale behind the decision, neither can they dance to their party’s over sung chorus of electoral reforms. Indeed the demand for electoral reform cannot justify MDC-T’s donation of seats to a rival party.
If the MDC-T were sincere about the electoral reforms, they must not fill the seven proportional representation seats, for doing so will be participating in the same process they are condemning. Even their threat to pull out of Parliament is long overdue because the parliamentarians are in there because of the electoral process they are condemning today. Hopefully it will not remain a threat until 2018. They must just pull out and let ZANU-PF continue steering development.
The fact that they choose to selectively apply their boycott stance shows that Morgan Tsvangirai and his party have other reasons for staying away from the by-elections.
They won these seats in the 2013 polls under the same electoral environment. That environment has not changed a bit. It now puzzles many people to understand why the MDC-T is no longer confident this time around to reclaim the seats they won in the 2013 plebiscites.
The MDC-T is certain that it will be thrashed in the by-election, a defeat that will invite gross embarrassment to the embattled party. Thus, it wants to tactfully avoid such embarrassment by staying away from the by-elections under the tired rhetoric of undemocratic electoral environment.
A loss in its erstwhile heartland will obviously damage the confidence of both its supporters and benefactors. The benefactors wanted to gauge from these by-elections if the MDC-T is still worth their funding.
Tsvangirai cannot spring up today to demand electoral reforms when he spent four years in the inclusive Government where he was supposed to push for the said reforms. His party had more legislators in parliament than ZANU-PF. It was the opportune time to push for the said reforms. Unfortunately, the MDC-T leader slept in government and so did his lieutenants in Parliament. They were more involved in self-enriching activities. Tsvangirai himself was caught in the trappings of power. He prioritised pleasure, becoming a legend of the seas, marrying and divorcing young women, all in an incredible period of a month.
Therefore, the MDC-T supporters must ask him how he intends to push for the electoral reforms while destroying the tool that can assist the party in that regard. They must also demand to know the value he added to the electoral process while he was the third most powerful government official in his four-year stint in the inclusive government. It is within their democratic right to demand such answers, for they invested their precious votes in him.
By upholding the boycott position, Tsvangirai is also frustrating the political aspirations of his youthful lieutenants. Some of them were already angling for the legislative jobs. They are justified given the fact that most of them are 2013 losers who have fallen on hard times. They had already seen themselves earning a sustainable salary.
It is to be seen if the incumbent MDC-T parliamentarians will comply with the order to pull out of Parliament. Only a fool can allow Tsvangirai to snatch the bread off their mouths. Tsvangirai himself has nothing to lose out of these decisions, for he is a seasoned loser. He would want the legislators to join him in his misery.
Doglous Mwonzora, whose law firm is at its lowest point, is one such official who was jostling for a ticket to represent the party in the by-elections. He had obviously hoped this would bail him out of the economic quagmire haunting him and his colleagues. Recent media reports had it that his law firm had properties attached over an outstanding rent arrears to the tune of $34 000.
It is high time that those who have genuine political aspirations in the MDC-T stand up against eternal and tired losers who want to sink into political oblivion with everybody. Tsvangirai is just a coward leader who has become a habitual electoral loser. It is high time the MDC-T chose a leader with a spine if they want Zimbabweans to take them seriously as an opposition party.
Online Reporter