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This article participates on the following special index pages:
2008 harmonised elections - Index of articles
Mobilize
against illegitimate Zanu PF regime
International Socialist Organisation (ISO)
July 01, 2008
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On 29 June Robert Mugabe
was announced the winner of the presidential runoff "elections"
with a vote of 2.1 million as opposed to 233 000 for Tsvangirai
and 131 481 spoilt ballots. The regime claimed a sweeping victory,
"winning" in all constituencies even in areas where
it did not win a single seat in the March elections.
As ISO had warned these
elections were not going to bring real democratic change. Rather
the regime would ensure a victory for Zanu PF by hook or crook and
then seek a government of national unity with MDC as a junior partner
to deal with the imploding economic crisis.
The decision
by MDC to pull out
of the run off was therefore correct. Participating in such a sham
election would have been disastrous. Activists desperately needed
breathing space to re-organize and begin the fight-back. This would
have been much more difficulty after a sure defeat on 27 June. The
pullout exposed the elections for the sham they are even for Mugabe's
buddies.
SADC
and AU
observer teams have declared the elections undemocratic. The issue
now is what is the way forward? The crisis of legitimacy for the
regime and the escalating economic crisis with inflation over two
million, creates three main possibilities: an elitist negotiated
settlement or removal of the illegitimate regime through people
power and the holding of proper elections under a new democratic
people driven constitution or on failure of these an all out Zanu
PF-military dictatorship.
The negotiated option
is being pushed by elites locally, regionally and internationally.
With its structures decimated, its supporters traumatized, brutalized
and killed the elites in the MDC leadership will use this to push
this option, arguing that there is no other way.
Yet the paralysis of
MDC results not only from the repression but also critically the
massive blunders of strategy of the MDC leadership. They, and their
followers in civic society naively believed in a central strategy
of elections without a new constitution as the main way to achieve
change.
They steadfastly downplayed
the need for people power or mass action based alternatives, including
critically the need to establish a democratic united front of the
opposition and civic society.
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