Western duplicity shocking

JUST before this year’s harmonised elections, some Western countries and organisations, mainly from the European Union and the United States, said they wanted to mobilise US$10 million for the training of election agents for political parties.

To the uninformed, this sounded like a noble initiative to enhance the credibility of this year’s polls, as election agents play a crucial role in ensuring transparency.

The polling agents are, after all, the eyes and ears of election candidates.

However, it turned out that this seemingly benevolent gesture was not only illegal, but also a surreptitious attempt to give the opposition an unfair advantage during the August 23 polls.

It emerged that the proposed funding offer to train election agents of political parties was a direct interference in Zimbabwe’s electoral processes.

In a statement to the media on June 11, ZANU PF Secretary for Finance Cde Patrick Chinamasa, who is also a legal guru, shed light on the clandestine plan.

“I wish to make it abundantly clear that such offer of funding is illegal and in direct violation of Section 6 of the Political Parties (Finance Act) Chapter 2:11 which provides that: (1) ‘No political party, member of a political party or candidate shall accept any foreign donation whether directly from a donor or through a third person’,” said Cde Chinamasa.

“For this reason, ZANU PF will not accept any donor funding towards the training of its polling agents as that would be illegal and in violation of our laws. ZANU PF calls upon all political parties in Zimbabwe, including CCC and MDC-A, not to accept this offer of funding as that will be in violation of the Political Parties (Finance) Act.”

Cde Chinamasa also called upon law-enforcement agents and financial institutions to monitor any flow of funds into Zimbabwe, especially during this election period to prevent any violation of the Political Parties (Finance) Act, and to bring to book any perpetrators.

Organisations that were understood to be behind that plot were from countries that include the UK, France, Australia, Sweden and Japan.

Also behind the nefarious plot were the US Embassy in Harare, the US-based National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the EU, the US and the UK-funded Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) and the Elections Resource Centre (ERC).

Information gathered by this publication has revealed that, despite that stern warning, these Western organisations did not take heed, and, in fact, proceeded to fund the training of CCC’s election agents.

The money was indeed released to the CCC, despite this being in flagrant breach of the law.

We have it on good authority that a large chunk of the funds was looted by Nelson Chamisa, who sidelined his vice president, Tendai Biti, from dipping into the cookie jar.

As we speak, Biti is not a happy man.

By now, it is abundantly clear that the observer reports from Western countries parroted wishes of the CCC. It is no wonder they have been sponsoring the opposition, while pretending to be impartial.

One incident that occurred prior to the elections was instructive of the clear prejudice by Western observers. On August 21, Mr Chamisa made his now infamous statement: “We are briefing all the election observer delegations. I’m briefing the Chinese delegation today, I’m briefing the Commonwealth, they all want to hear our views.

“We have told them that any result that will put Mnangagwa ahead of Chamisa is a fake result.”

So, going by this, Chamisa clearly said he would not accept any result that did not declare him the winner. Oddly, preliminary reports of Western election observers such as the EU and the Carter Foundation pretended that they did not hear this highly mischievous and inflammatory statement.

What was the point of going for an election if Chamisa can be left to declare himself as the victor? How Western observers fail to observe this anomaly beggars belief.

How this blatant disregard of the electoral process could not find its way in the reports of Western observer missions is even more shocking.

This year’s polls were, without doubt, the most peaceful general elections to have been held in the country in the past two decades.

However, the Western observer missions hardly dwelt on this, choosing to run with their preconceived notions that chaos would hamper the polls. All this points to the clear fact that Western organisations unashamedly took sides in this year’s elections and were not impartial enough to observe the polls with an open mind.