via No fresh polls before Diaspora Vote is restored 31 December 2014 by Clifford Chitupa Mashiri
The story, ‘Fresh poll looms as Zanu- PF, MDC-T push to recall MPs,” Newsday, 30/12/14, should be a matter of great concern to every serious-thinking Zimbabwean.
What fresh polls are they talking about without a clear roadmap? We have seen it before, rushed elections being stolen with impunity just to prolong autocratic and tyrannical rule in the country.
Zimbabwe should not rush into fresh elections before an estimated 3-4 million people in the Diaspora are allowed to vote with dual citizenship granted transparently.
There should be no fresh polls until NIKUV leaves Zimbabwe or is not involved in election related work in the country.
No fresh polls should be held before the country can organise electronic polls as Namibia did.
There should be no fresh elections in Zimbabwe without robust checks and balances including the total exclusion of NIKUV and its affiliates.
Zimbabweans should not be dragged into elections no matter free of violence before a full audit of the country’s requirements by the United Nations which should fund and supervise the polls.
There should be a total revamping of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and retiring of Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede before any credible fresh elections in Zimbabwe.
There should be no fresh polls without credible international observers i.e.UN/EU/AU/SADC not just South African government observers, liberation movements, AU, SADC and Non-Aligned Movement member states.
No fresh elections should be held under the present chaotic circumstances whereby the electronic voters roll, which is the smoking gun from the recent disputed 2013 elections remains concealed by Zanu-PF under the guise of a broken computer since July 2013 to-date.
Zimbabwe should not hold any fresh elections before all the eligible voters – including an estimated 2 million urban so-called aliens and youths who were disenfranchised in 2013 are registered.
No fresh elections should be held in a hurry just to score political points against internal or external political opponents in order to join the gravy train and maintain a tight grip on power.
Zimbabweans should not agree to going to polls when there is a high potential for violence.
No fresh elections should be held just as a ploy for a second Coalition Government in order to give cornered and ageing Mugabe a decent send- off after he failed to rig the economy.
No fresh elections should be held before the long-overdue realignment of various laws with the new constitution is completed e.g. Electoral Amendment Act, the Citizenship Act, POSA, AIPPA, Broadcasting Act.
No fresh elections should be held until The Criminal Law (Codification and reform) Act that criminalises defamation is completed repealed, after it was declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court on 22 July 2014, because the devil lies in the details i.e. implementation.
No fresh polls should be held in Zimbabwe before the opening of the airwaves, meaning before new independent non-partisan TV and Radio broadcasting companies are licenced.
Zimbabwe should not frogmarch people to polling stations just to rubberstamp a bedroom coup.
It is reckless for both Zanu-PF and MDC formations to talk about elections before the Diaspora. Vote is restored.
Clifford is a former diplomat, author, London-based political analyst and a PhD candidate at London South Bank University. Email: mashiric@lsbu.ac.uk or zimanalysis2009@gmail.com.
COMMENTS
Elections are due every five years. So for you to cry foul and dictate what you are hallucinating is just but mere piliticking. The parliament is there to do do all ammendments for laws to align with the new constitution. So parliamentarians should be on the driving seat. Then to say certain pple shld retire you are lost bcoz you cant dictate that to suit your own ambitions even to those who shld observe the elections. Tell your masters to remove sanctions all of them then the ground will be level. Icho
Papajose, there are no sanctions except in your head your brain is sanctioned by your stupidity and brainwashing. What is true is that Mugabe is too old to run a bath much less a country, and that has been true for at least 15 years. What happened to Zimbabwe in the last 15 years. The currency was destroyed by the Mugabe controlled printing press. Commercial agriculture was destroyed because ZANUPF greed and Mugabe’s desire for power at any cost. Unemployment has risen to unprecedented heights as a result of ZANU PF stupidity with Mugabe in control. The law is abrogated to suit Mugabe and his ZANU PF chefs (why have the courts not decided on the electoral challenges from the 2002 elections). You are so stupid or corrupt or both that I hope your New Year is blighted by this stupidity.
Mashiri merely stated facts. Parliament is stuffed by rigged in candidates, who stole the vote, we hv lost hope at the parliamentary push, street, gorilla fight, chimurega 3, sabotage and resistance are at our disposal as disenfranchised citizens. I ll bomb statehouse if i can
Mashiri merely stated facts. Parliament is stuffed by rigged in candidates, who stole the vote, we hv lost hope at the parliamentary push, street, gorilla fight, chimurega 3, sabotage and resistance are at our disposal as disenfranchised citizens. I ll bomb statehouse if i can for there are not many options
Everything that Masher has said is just plain common sense. These are simple democratic requisites . even papajose will the freedom being fought for.
@papajose the sanctions story is a tired excuse, Zanu puff has ‘won’ all elections after those so called sanctions. The economy died during the Gukurahundi massacres, but a few people recognised it. The economy got into free fall in the 1990’s and still a greater number started seeing it. Unfortunately those blinded by Zanu propaganda and sloganeering saw nothing. The referandum was used by Zanu puff to test the waters to see if people had realized Zanu puff was incompetent to govern. When the result proved just that they blamed the white farmers and championed the chaotic farm invasions. When travel restrictions were imposed they called them sanctions and blamed them on the failed economy which by then was stinking in decomposition.
Electoral reforms are for the benefit of Zimbabwe and every citizen, including you and all Zanu puff. Why is Zanu puff afraid of the people? Since 1985 there was voter apathy because of Zanu tactics of intimidation and no political alternative as Zapu was systematically being killed. Come the late 1990’s and birth of MDC and a whole lot of born-frees and youngsters who knew nothing of liberation struggle to wanted jobs to survive, Zanu became scared of the people and soiled its pants. Draconians laws were put up and it is these that must come down.
A government with people’s interests must not put laws that are against those very people.