adminKamangeni Phiri Midlands Bureau Chief
ZIMBABWE’S electorate has matured as evidenced by the peace that prevailed before, during and after the 31 July harmonised elections, analysts have said. Zanu-PF President and First Secretary, Cde Robert Mugabe trounced MDC-T leader, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai by a close to a million votes in the race for the presidency.
President Mugabe won 61,09 percent of the votes while Mr Tsvangirai got 33,94 percent. In the National Assembly results, Zanu-PF won 160 seats while MDC-T got 49, effectively putting an end to the ineffective Inclusive Government.
In interviews, analysts said the ball was now in the political leadership’s court to deliver on the promises while those who lost should refrain from hate speech and accept the election outcome.
The analysts who described the harmonised elections as “free and fair” said the Zanu-PF leadership should quickly move to fulfill the promises it made to the electorate while campaigning. They challenged MDC-T to live up to its name of a pro-democratic organisation and accept defeat.
Midlands State University lecturer and chairperson of the Media Studies Department, Mr Eckson Mugari, said the 2013 election outcome, when juxtaposed with that of 2008, proved to the world that Zimbabwe was a democratic country.
He said the recent elections also proved that politicians did not own people as the electorate expressed its will freely.
“I want to celebrate the democratic element of the elections and the maturity shown by Zimbabweans. People voted in peace and expressed their wish through the ballot paper. I am, however, disappointed by the leadership’s failure to respect the wishes of the people. They (politicians) do not have a monopoly over people. In the 2008 election MDC-T had the majority seats in parliament and this time things have changed as Zanu-PF emerged victorious.
If I was MDC-T, I would celebrate the democracy in the country as evidenced by the people who were allowed to make their own choices of choosing their own leaders,” said Mr Mugari.
He said parties should not demonise each other and desist from taking one another as enemies.
Mr Mugari said the parties and individuals who participated in the elections were all Zimbabweans.
“Let’s move on as a nation. Let us accept where we were defeated and not ask why we lost. The question is, are we as a people demonstrating qualities that we can accept the people’s will? Let us not plunge the country into confusion and chaos through reckless remarks. We need to avoid causing unnecessary friction and appreciate that a democratic process involves a lot of issues like people and tolerance,” he said.
Harare-based political analyst, Mr Panganai Kahuni said Zanu-PF should waste no time in delivering on its promises to the people.
He said Zanu-PF has the capacity to fulfil its promises as some of the programmes designed to benefit people like community share ownership schemes and land reform were implemented long back before the 31 July elections.
“Zanu-PF needs to strengthen what it has already committed itself to do for the people in its manifesto. The revolutionary party should demonstrate that indigenisation is meant to benefit the people as already proved in Shurugwi and Zvishavane. The economy can grow much faster under the indigenisation programme and community share ownership schemes,” said Mr Kahuni.
He said Zanu-PF overwhelmingly won the election because of its principles and its promises to enhance what they had already started such land redistribution and indigenisation of the economy.
He said MDC-T campaigned for Zanu-PF by focusing on issues that did not affect the people.
“The MDC-T was complaining a lot on issues they failed to agree on in cabinet. They were always regurgitating what the US ambassador was telling them, promising people millions of jobs. But of you look at the Marikana experience in South Africa where a number of mine workers were shot dead while striking for better salaries and improved working conditions, a foreign controlled economy does not work. The South African miners lost their lives because they were workers who did not have a say in the running of the mining company.
MDC-T aligned itself with people who have permanent interests not permanent friends. Their leadership was focused more on acquiring personal wealth overseas and neighbouring South Africa.
MDC-T is clueless as to what needs to be done for the people of Zimbabwe. This is why they were busy reading Zanu-PF’s manifesto, that, in itself, is a demonstration of psychological defeat,” said Mr Kahuni.
Meanwhile, former Gweru mayor, Mr Tadius Chimombe who contested the Gweru Urban Seat as an independent candidate and lost, described the elections as “free and fair”.
He said all the candidates were given equal opportunities to campaign.
“There might be a few isolated cases of posters that were torn but such things are expected in an election. Ironically, I had my posters torn by MDC-T supporters who today are alleging the elections were not free and fair. The MDC-T lost the election largely because it destroyed itself. Mombe haikorere pamarket. (you cannot fatten a cow at the market) The MDC-T leader, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, fired councillors in Harare, Gweru, Bindura, Zvishavane, Shurugwi, Chitungwiza and Karoi.
These councillors had people who voted for them, you can’t expect to win an election when you fire individuals who have the support of the people. Politics is a game of numbers.
“Zanu-PF does not just fire people from its structures. They discipline them by, for example, barring them from holding positions in Government,” said Mr Chimombe.
Mr Chimombe also attributed his former party’s poor performance in the 2013 elections to “hiring ministers” from outside for the Inclusive Government.
He said the ministers were hired at the expense of cadres who were there when MDC-T was formed in 1999.
“We went through a lot of suffering during the formative years of MDC yet some outsiders were appointed into key positions at our expense. Tsvangirai and his party should not complain of rigging because that is not true. The party tripped itself. Anyway, why is it that there is only one party complaining? The MDC-T leadership also lost it when it imposed candidates who were in the diaspora.
These people were enjoying life in places like the UK while the rest of us were suffering due to sanctions,” said Mr Chimombe.
Online Reporter