The Sunday News
Micheal Mhlanga
In the process of national transition, Zimbabwe has been subjected to numerous pedagogical experiences.
At the core of these national lessons is the discovery of the need to consciously manufacture a national culture.
The question of a national culture which embodies the behavioural patterns of the electorate, becomes an urgent question especially this week when the nation is approaching the final stages of the build up towards the long awaited uniquely free and fair elections.
In this election precisely, the new dispensation in its seven months of existence, has assured the procedural credibility of the structures that govern the conduct of elections. In the preparation towards the upcoming elections, resounding changes have taken effect.
Zimbabwe has seen even its opposition being allowed to campaign in the remotest areas which were previously alleged to be areas of repression. In advance the new dispensation has radicalised the echelons of all state organs in favour of every political player partaking in the upcoming 30 July harmonised elections.
The ED Mnangagwa administration has ensured equal access to state owned media for every political party, even further, the new dispensation has played an active role in protecting civil liberties like the right to protest and legally confront any existing authority for the sake of justice.
The recently held July 11 opposition protest for electoral reforms resonates with the new dispensation’s November 2017 demonstration agenda to harness the ideals of democracy, human rights and good governance.
As such, the free voices that parade in the corridors of power, in their diversity are an outcome of the 24 November oath taken by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Beyond the establishment’s effort to safeguard the integrity of electoral processes, worth discussing is the character of public opinion.
In its fragmentation, public opinion derives its origins from various lived experiences which are a product of history and the attempt to respond to the national question of national transformation.
In the attempt to respond to transformation exigencies, one fact that remains, Zimbabwe in its diversity, we are all fighting for the same outcome although we differ on the means to get there.
It is inherent in every Zimbabwean’s aspirations to see a better Zimbabwe, a prosperous nation and most importantly a republic that is habitable for both native citizens and those who are charmed into vesting interest in Zimbabwe, be it for business or cultural interests.
Of necessity is the task to discuss the attitudes that govern Zimbabwe’s electoral behaviour, what pushes certain actors to conduct themselves in a certain way (specifically political parties) and ultimately to explain the occurrences of specific inclinations that have marred Zimbabwe’s political landscape. In the heights of public opinion presently, is the question of the freeness and fairness of the upcoming elections.
Despite the tireless effort and the political will invested by the new dispensation, specific interest groups like the MDC Alliance and the cohort of CSOs aligned to it have been persistently demanding for some obscure electoral anxieties, demands that even puzzle the mind of an average student in political science.
Eventually, this pushes the academy into revisiting the character of opposition’s claims and how those claims might just be an outcome of rehearsed complaints, which were true at some point but nonetheless have been pre-emptied by the new dispensation’s democratic performances.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) which has been at the firing line of opposition’s accusations, has made tremendous efforts to avail itself for dialogue and respond to critical questions that opposition presents.
Nonetheless, Zec’s effort have gained little or no appreciation regardless of the radical changes effected by Zec to level the electoral field. Ultimately this establishes one stubborn fact, the noise made by opposition activists is just an empty rhetoric.
It is just an attempt to gunner sympathy from donors. It has worked for opposition before, but this time it will not sail through because of ED Mnangagwa’s originality in responding to questions of democracy and most importantly, economic development.
As a starting point those who have been serially conned by the opposition’s rhetoric of democracy and human rights have recently understood that opposition politicians were swindling everyone for financial gain.
Recently, USAID uncovered one of the scams used by politicians sympathetic to the Alliance.
The scandalous financial dealings of opposition were publicly uncovered leading to USAID pulling out of funding the Election Resource Centre which was the nerve centre of manufacturing superstitious lies on the conduct of elections in Zimbabwe in exchange for financial aid which nonetheless is said to be misused.
Such an example is symptomatic of opposition’s character and how it manages to use the electoral reform agenda as a decoy for its own corrupt aspirations. To make things clear, Zimbabwe is diverse, as such in its diversity, opposition is allowed to exist.
Zimbabweans should therefore respect the choice by some of its citizens to oppose but nevertheless, it should be fixed that the current crop of leadership in opposition is corrupt, and its corruption has thrived on the hopes of the masses who genuinely wish to see a better Zimbabwe, a Zimbabwe that was best explained by the governance position adopted by the new dispensation, of a Zimbabwe that is open for business.
The pressure that is being mounted on the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission from various opposition groups is a manifestation of mal-democracy — the general assumption that every Zimbabwean agrees to their demands of legislative reform is untrue.
The misguided conception that every voter belongs to Opposition is untrue, beyond the Zanu-PF supporters who frequently disagree with opposition politicians on electoral reforms demanded by opposition, the majority of Zimbabweans are not even active political party supporters, they are not even part of those demonstrations which opposition uses as a logic to demonise the structure of the electoral act.
As such, a law does not belong to two political parties, Zanu-PF as the ruling party cannot suddenly alter any law because opposition politicians said so, the Government can only alter laws upon determining that those alterations reflect the will of the majority, anything less than that constitutes a violation of democracy and a tokenistic method of legislation.
The idea that an election can only be free and fair if opposition wins is a fatal and autocratic. The outcome of an election is not fixed, that is why even the ruling party itself is busy campaigning. In itself that is a gesture to show that a win is earned.
Resistance officials should disband their misled efforts to scandalize Zec, the Zimbabwe Electoral Election is not contesting in any election.
Opposition politicians, if they genuinely wanted legislative reforms they would have lobbied for them in Parliament that they have been part of for a duration of 18 years.
Laws are not made in rallies and protests, the word of opposition should not be virtually viewed as law itself, policies are made in Parliament to safeguard the interests of everyone who is not part of mainstream political party activism.
If Zec was as biased as how opposition presents it, Zimbabwe would not be having opposition MPs and councillors.
In 2013 opposition exposed itself by discrediting the validity of Zec in the Presidential results yet they valued Zec in their own House of Assembly seats and local government seats.
The 2018 elections will be free, fair and credible. Instead of using electoral reforms as a decoy to escape the shame of losing, opposition politicians should respect Zimbabwe and discontinue spreading divisive sentiments that challenge the essence of elections as a tool of nation building.
Even further, these sentiments are what will constitute apathy to genuine opposition voters who wish to embrace the plurality of Zimbabwean politics. 2018 is here, 2018 will tell, there is no going back.
Asijiki! Elections are going on. Yikho khona lokhu!
