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Democracy lost the elections
Daniel Molokela
April 11, 2005

As a dark cloud of doubt and uncertainty continues to surround the implications of the just ended Parliamentary elections in Zimbabwe, one clear fact is beginning to emerge.

That fact is that whichever way one may choose to view the outcome of the recent polling process, the reality is that there is now a hangover on the efficacy of the political process in the crisis riddled country. It appears instead of the MDC, it is in fact the notion of democracy in Zimbabwe that lost the recent elections.

Indeed, contrary to the desperate hopes and expectations of many progressive Zimbabweans both at home and abroad, the elections have merely had the net effect of exacerbating the already messy situation in the nation’s political landscape. It is becoming more and more apparent to many disillusioned Zimbabweans that that the perennial crisis that has for so long undermined the country’s potential is far from over.

As I write many Zimbabweans are completely shocked and disappointed by the outcome of the recent electoral process. Many are busy wiggling and wallowing in the muddy waters of self-pity and despondency. Others are busy bracing themselves for a long haul of continued Zanu-PF misrule, cronyism and patronage. Some already fear for the worst, the total collapse of the entire nation’s political and socio-economic fabric.

The future is uncertain. Hope has virtual deserted the country. Just the like the basic commodities that have also suddenly abandoned their supermarket shelves as if they are fleeing amid rumours of an advancing tsunami. Things are bad. Life in Zimbabwe is now set to be harsher than ever before. As it is, anyone may be justified in insisting that unless something drastically positive happens, the worst is yet to come for Zimbabwe.

To put the icing on the cake, many who up to now where still lingering and wandering aimlessly in the country hoping for a political change will now consider leaving with immediate effect. Another mass exodus of the local population is looming on the horizon. Sooner that later many people will abandon Zimbabwe and venture out to seek for greener pastures elsewhere.

Just like in the aftermath of both the 2000 and 2005 elections when many hundreds of thousands left the country, it is also likely that another huge chunk of the local population will soon join the ever swelling ranks of the Diaspora.

It would be remembered that a lot of Zimbabweans had been led to believe that they had the power to change their national destiny. It had been preached by both the civic society movement and the opposition parties alike that the people had the final say in the national agenda and discourse. 

In particular, a lot of Zimbabweans had been inspired by the successful NO-vote campaign against the daft Chidyausiku Constitution in February 2000. In the aftermath of the euphoria that followed the surprise rejection of the Government sponsored Constitution, a lot of Zimbabweans had somehow assumed that the sun was about to set down on the Zanu-PF political horizons.

Many enthusiastically waited and then voted overwhelmingly for the opposition MDC. Many presumed that after the June 2000 Parliamentary elections, Zanu-PF will be given a red-carpet send off into the archives of Zimbabwean political history.

But this was not to be. As history would have it, Zanu-PF adopted a ‘by any means necessary’ survival strategy that ensured that they ‘won’ the elections by hook or crook.

Then in March 2002, a lot of people agreed to shake off the nagging effects of the disappointment of 2000 and decided to give Zanu-PF the final push. But again this was not to be. Robert Mugabe emerged the victor amid the deafening cries from Morgan Tsvangirai that the election result was the worst case of fraud in the nation’s electoral history. The people’s hopes were once again, completely dashed by the regime.

As such when March 2005 came, many were justifiably skeptical about the efficacy of the elections as a vehicle for peaceful democratic change in Zimbabwe. That profound level of lack of faith and trust in the electoral system was confirmed by the MDC’s protracted process of deciding on whether to participate or not. Eventually, the MDC decided to participate under protest on a without prejudice basis.

Now that the March 2005 elections have come and gone, it is once again clear that the nation has been robbed of its right to determine its destiny. Zanu-PF has once again conspired against the majority interest of the nation. Zanu-PF has as usual chosen to sacrifice the will of the nation on the altar of political expediency and self-aggrandizement.

Once again, Zanu-PF has clearly shown that its survival has the utmost preponderance over the ultimate survival of the broader nation. The wishes of the majority have once again been subjected to the wishes of a long discredited party, bereft of political vision and agenda. Zanu-PF has in the net effect, transferred the nation’s hopes into its already overdrawn account of visionless ness. The future is now a bounced cheque for the majority of Zimbabweans.

It is thus clear that the nation’s democratic process has once again exposed the fallacy of the belief that change is possible via peaceful electoral means. The option of using the elections to mortgage the future of the country has now been utterly discredited. As it is, it is dawning on the minds of many Zimbabweans that the solution to the crisis in Zimbabwe may lie way beyond the elections.

The task therefore of the civic society movement and the opposition parties alike is to go back to the drawing board and draw up a new strategy for change in Zimbabwe.

That strategy will prima facie, be exclusionary of all other discredited processes such as the Parliament and the Courts. It has to be a people-centred strategy involving the disillusioned masses. It has to be a strategy that might involve even moving beyond the movement for democratic change. But I digress, suffice for me to say only time will tell.

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