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Ranga Mataire, Group Political Editor
The opposition CCC, whose leader contested under the MDC Alliance in 2018, is struggling to have real traction among voters.
The party is failing to whip up enthusiasm among its main base of supporters, while its strategy to impact the ruling party strongholds in the rural areas has faltered.
The failure to make a meaningful impact can generally be attributed to a lack of a coherent political message. The opposition’s woes have also been compounded by the fact that, to most voters, the whole campaign looks like a one-man show. It is not an organisational campaign. So far, no other senior party leader has been visible or given a platform to campaign for the party.
Given the acrimonious manner in which candidates were selected using an archaic and undemocratic “bereka mwana” (stand behind your preferred candidate) approach, it’s safe to say that the CCC is at its weakest in this election. Prospects of an electoral whitewash have been confirmed by the Afrobarometer survey and the Fitch report, which both showed ZANU-PF and President Mnangagwa leading the polls. This is forcing the CCC to resort to discrediting the whole election process by raising all manner of imagined discrepancies.
First, they complained that their Bulawayo candidates who were initially disqualified by the High Court for filling nomination papers late were being discriminated against. On the contrary, it was clear that the party’s sloppiness and centralization of power was the major cause of the mishap.
They said the courts were captured. Yet, when the Constitutional Court judged in the party’s favour, they quickly moved to find other excuses. Claims that their campaigns have been hindered have fallen away as the election campaigns have progressed.
The party has been quick to exploit any incident in their favour. In Glen View, unfortunate skirmishes resulted in a CCC activist’s death. Before police had concluded their investigations, the CCC leadership was already accusing ZANU-PF supporters of stoning the individual to death. Even pro-CCC news outlets that had rushed to the same conclusion changed their tone after speaking to people who actually saw the tragic event happen – he was crushed by a moving truck, and not stoned to death.
Apportioning blame to ZANU-PF is an opposition strategy meant to create an impression of an uneven playing field and an alibi for discrediting the election process.
The plan is to attract local and international observers’ glare and hope they will write post-election adverse reports.
One death is one death too many. However, curious observers will notice that there is always a different standard used when it comes to Zimbabwe’s elections. In the last Kenyan elections of 2007, over 1, 300 people were killed in election-related violence while up to 600 000 people were displaced.
And in 2017, 37 people, including three children, were killed in protests that followed the announcement of the elections results in Kenya. Most recently, up to 50 people have been killed by police over the past month during protests in that country.
Closer home, shootings linked to local politics are frequent in South Africa. In all these cases, the voices of so-called human rights organisations are muted, only to be raised when something happens in Zimbabwe.
This is in no way an attempt to debase the death of the alleged opposition supporter, but one has to note the hypocrisy.
Until the sad and unfortunate incident, the environment had largely been peaceful. President Mnangagwa, who is the ZANU-PF candidate, has been unequivocal in calling for peace during and after the elections.
Addressing a star rally in Mashonaland West last month, President Mnangagwa urged citizens to remain peaceful.
“We in ZANU-PF despise violence, we want peace so it must be understood that it’s our desire, we the people of Zimbabwe, particularly ZANU-PF. We want peace, and unity before, during and after elections,” President Mnangagwa said, saying the 2018 peaceful environment was spoiled by some detractors who started fomenting violence after the elections.
In a show of his sincerity and commitment to peace, his governing party was part of a group of contesting political parties that signed a peace pledge convened by Heads of Christian Denominations (HCD) in Harare.
But despite all these peace initiatives, the opposition CCC is on an orchestrated campaign to discredit the election process. In tow is the United States embassy in Harare, which brazenly posted some tweets urging “citizens” to vote but already condemning the environment.
In an interview with the administration foreign mouthpiece, Voice of America (VOA), U.S Assistant Secretary of African Affairs, Molly Phee, this week threw some aspersions about the campaign period saying the passing of the “Patriotic Act” imposes sanctions on basic political freedoms in the country.
Her comments cast doubt on whether she actually read the Act. In its essence, the act is meant to deter Zimbabweans from engaging in covert activities with foreigners in undermining the sovereignty of the country. It reads totally different from what US Assistant Secretary tried to paint in her interview with VOA.
While ZANU-PF has been consistent in calling for peace, the same cannot be said of the CCC, whose leader recently said his party had the capacity to revenge the death of its supporter. The party has also presented itself as a victim despite the fact that one of its leaders is currently incarcerated for inciting public violence and calling for public pandemonium.
As the voting day draws closer, we must expect more aspersions meant to discredit the process.
False claims are likely to rise to a crescendo from the opposition camp. Our hope is that nobody will take the bait and be fooled into an unnecessary reaction.
Any such claims must be dealt with and countered using facts. They are just the antics of an opposition fearing an electoral whitewash from a more organised opponent.
Online Reporter