I’ll only accept a win: Tsvangirai

Source: I’ll only accept a win: Tsvangirai – DailyNews Live

Tendai Kamhungira      2 May 2017

HARARE – MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai has warned President Robert
Mugabe and Zanu PF that he will not accept the results if he loses the
eagerly-awaited next year’s elections.

The dogged former labour union leader said he was aware that Mugabe was
planning to manipulate the results and warned that there will not be a
repeat of what happened in 2013 when he grudgingly conceded defeat.

“Munhu ane 93 anovimba nechii? (Where does a 93-year-old person get the
confidence to participate in elections?). He wants to cheat. He thinks he
can get away with cheating to win.

“We know what you are doing, we have all the information that you want to
cheat again like you did with Nikuv in 2013, but this time around it will
not happen.

“Takanangana nema elections ari kuuya 2018, there is no outcome
yatinobvuma isiri (which we will accept besides a) victory for the
opposition…Ini 2018 kana ndisina kuhwina handibvume (If I do not win in
2018, I will not accept the results). Because it’s very simple, how a
minority win over the majority, how does a divided, fragmented minority
win over the united opposition and a united alternative to the people,”
Tsvangirai told workers who gathered yesterday at Dzivaresekwa Stadium to
commemorate Workers’ Day.

The former prime minister in the inclusive government said the opposition,
coalescing under the banner of the National Electoral Reform Agenda
(Nera), will continue to push for much-needed electoral reforms before
elections are held.

In the meantime, Tsvangirai and leaders of smaller opposition parties, who
include former Vice President Joice Mujuru, have been working on a grand
coalition which analysts say presents them with the best opportunity of
finally ending Mugabe and Zanu PF’s long but tumultuous rule.

In significant developments last month, Tsvangirai signed memoranda of
understanding (MoUs) with Mujuru and his former secretary-general Welshman
Ncube, ahead of the finalisation of the planned electoral alliance.

Analysts have also repeatedly said Mujuru, whose liberation struggle nom
de guerre was Teurai Ropa (Spill Blood), and whose husband Solomon was the
first black post-independence army commander, could provide the
much-needed bridge that opposition parties have been missing to ensure the
smooth transfer of power if they win elections again.