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Hebert Zharare Political Editor
Analysts yesterday said the law should take its course on losing MDC-T politicians who are threatening to incite violence to render the country ungovernable in the wake of their defeat at the polls. Even though judging by the outcome of the harmonised elections that have delivered an emphatic victory for President Mugabe and Zanu-PF, the MDC-T did not have the capacity to mobilise crowds, the police should be vigilant to clampdown on any lawless elements.
MDC-T spokesperson Mr Douglas Mwonzora who lost Nyanga North constituency to Cde Hurbert Nyanhongo, yesterday said his party could take to the streets to challenge President Mugabe and Zanu-PF’s crushing victory in the harmonised elections.
The party’s treasurer and fugitive from justice, Mr Roy Bennett posted on his Facebook wall urging people to reject the outcome and launch an intense programme of civil society.
Mr Tsvangirai claims the poll was a nullity.
“Demonstrations and mass action are options,” said Mr Mwonzora in a statement widely condemned as irresponsible yesterday.
The party’s top leadership, the majority of whom were whitewashed by Zanu-PF, met at Harvest House yesterday to chart their next move and were not answering their phones.
University of Zimbabwe lecturer Dr Joseph Kurebwa, said it was unfortunate that some losers threatened to unleash chaos in the country, adding that the law was supposed to take its course.
“It’s unfortunate that losers want to put the country in a state where it is ungovernable. They want to create fear, alarm and despondency. They are inviting the wrath of law,” he said. “They went there (into elections) knowing that there will be losers and for them to start threatening demonstrations before the results are fully announced is lack of appreciation of democracy on their party,” he said.
President Mugabe and Zanu-PF are heading for an emphatic victory with 182 out of the 210 National Assembly constituencies announced giving Zanu-PF 136 seats and the MDC-T 46
Mrs Margaret Dongo yesterday said there was nothing unusual with the MDC-T losing an election with the magnitude it did, adding the party was supposed to accept defeat. “What I want to urge the MDC-T officials is that they should accept defeat gracefully. Why do they want to use innocent Zimbabweans to pay for their battles? These innocent people are not going to be paid for the demonstrations the MDC-T is planning. They should stop abusing people like that,” she said.
Mrs Dongo said the majority of Zimbabweans were politically mature and were now aware of what they wanted from apolitical parties.
“The reasons why they lost are that they lost touch with the people and especially for Mwonzora, he could have won. However, they are being punished by the people. There is no rigging to talk about. It happened to Zanu-PF before and after that it went back to the people and during this election, they were relevant,” said Mrs Dongo.
She said the “writing” was written on the wall before the polls started given that the MDC-T leadership and legislators spent most of their time in international capitals gallivanting while the battle was going to be fought and won in Zimbabwe.
“They were international travellers, they were political tourists and how did they expect to win? The MDC-T should know that Zimbabweans are not mercenaries and they will refuse to be used to fight other people’s political wars. These people were overwhelmed with power and were serving selfish interests while in Government.
That is why they are reacting like this before the poll results are out because they know power has vanished. Gone are the days when the people could be used like rags,” she said.
Midlands State University lecturer Dr Nhamo Mhiripiri made some intriguing observations that although the MDC-T officials had the right to express their frustrations through demonstrations, their actions were not supposed to interfere with other Zimbabweans’ constitutional rights.
He said it was irresponsible for the MDC-T officials to issue such threats before conclusive results were made public, adding there was no proof that the one million people they claimed were turned away by ZEC existed, or were their supporters.
Online Reporter