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President Morgan Tsvangirai’s address to the press
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
July 26, 2013

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Introduction

Good morning members of the press.

We are now five days away from the most important election in Zimbabwe since 1980 and we thought we could interact with members of the Fourth Estate to share with you and through you, with the people of Zimbabwe, our position regarding the electoral environment and the impending election. This is a watershed election; a defining moment at which the people of Zimbabwe will make a choice between a progressive future under an MDC Government or a return to the dark days of 2008 under an exhausted Zanu-PF regime.

This is the first election coming after the highly disputed and violent poll of 2008 which led to a contested outcome and eventually, the formation of the Inclusive Government after SADC-led mediation. One of our collective commitments upon signing the Global Political Agreement (GPA), was to create conditions that would promote a lasting solution to the country’s challenges. The formation of the Inclusive Government was meant to soft-land the Zimbabwe crisis and prepare the ground for a truly free, fair and legitimate election which, ideally, would not breed another contested outcome.

Our signatures to the GPA notwithstanding, we have observed with great disappointment that our partners in the Inclusive Government have not been sincere or willing to take a collective, consensus-based approach to enable a lasting solution to our political challenges. Instead, they have pursued unilateralism, arrogance and literally rail-roaded the nation into an election with all the ingredients for chaos, contestation and controversy.

As I have said before, it is with a heavy heart that we participate in this election because the reforms we have agreed under the auspices of SADC have not been implemented while the regional body’s resolutions meant to create an environment for a credible election have been completely ignored. Nevertheless, we are contesting this election because we believe in the people of Zimbabwe and we respect their collective desire for change in the way this country’s is managed by its political leaders. The tidal wave of change is self-evident across the whole country. We believe the people of Zimbabwe will come out in their multitudes to overwhelm a system that is otherwise contrived against transformation. We believe ultimately the people of Zimbabwe will protect and defend their vote.

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