|
Back to Index
Elections:
make or break for the MDC-T
Blessing
Vava
January 15, 2013
http://blevava.blogspot.com/2013/01/elections-make-or-break-for-mdct.html
The month of
March 2013 will mark exactly five solid years since the country
held the historic harmonised elections whose result for the first
time in history were not in favour of Robert Mugabe and his party
ZANU PF. Unlike the previous polls, it was a relatively peaceful
poll with less incidences of politically motivated violence and
many Zimbabweans expected a new government to take over from ZANU
PF as indications from the ground signalled a lose by the Mugabe
regime. That election taught us about the power of masses, it was
a protest by the masses of Zimbabwe that they were tired and had
lost confidence in the Mugabe administration. It was a big NO to
a stale economy, corruption, looting, dictatorship, violence, and
intimidation all which had been the core characteristics of the
ZANU PF government since they took over Harare in 1980.
Not anyone in ZANU PF probably expected a rejection from the electorate
they were confident of securing a victory. In fact the election
result left them in a state of shock and by that time they were
clueless because they never imagined losing an election. However,
apart from losing that election, the MDC aided ZANU PF to resuscitate
itself. The MDC surrendered the people-s victory by failing
to claim victory as evidenced by its leadership including Morgan
Tsvangirai who fled the country to Botswana instead of running to
state house. During that time the masses were energised they were
very much prepared for a new government led not by ZANU PF but by
the MDC. The people were prepared to defend democracy, what was
needed was a leader that would invoke revolutionary spirit amongst
the electorate and assure them they would 'walk and live with
the masses.-
To much shock
and surprise the MDC lacked a clear plan to take over the state
and they gave ZANU PF space to breathe again. The reaction was largely
that the MDC entered into a race without expecting to win. As if
that was not enough, the party pulled another shocker by pulling
out of the runoff election a week before it was conducted. The move
to pull out was a betrayal to the thousands of Zimbabweans who were
beaten, incarcerated, killed in the run-up to that June 27 make-believe.
Seriously how do you pull out on the eve of an election without
a strong basis of doing so? ZANU PF-s electoral mal-practises
were reaping the negative on its bid to retain power -violence had
ceased to work in Zimbabwe-s body politic and I bet my last
dollar that Mugabe was not going to win that election. "We
have resolved that we will no longer participate in the violent,
illegitimate sham
of an election process. We will not play the game of Mugabe,"
Tsvangirai had said at a press conference in Harare on 22 June 2008.
The irony is that little did he know that the people had precisely
protested to this electoral fraud earlier in the March polls and
with the intensification of violence between April and June the
MDC was assured of a resounding victory.
Now in 2013,
the talk of elections seems topical with the MDC now being the loudest
in wanting polls despite having many disadvantages. It-s really
surprising that they are so confident that this time again they
are going to form the next government yet they have not corrected
the mistakes of 2008 and made more blunders thereafter. In 2008,
they managed to get more votes than ZANU PF because the masses were
energised to their cause but still they sold the people-s
victory by failing to demand the keys to state house.
The MDC has
systemically shied away from its founding principles in the process
alienating itself from the broader Save Zimbabwe 'former-
alliance partners namely the worker-s, the students union
and the NCA
who backed their campaign in 2008. The support they received from
the three partners is unlikely in this year-s polls. This
time around it will be a different ball altogether, there is discord
in the structures, the masses are lukewarm. The corruption, looting
by councillors will also be a determining factor. In short it is
the performance of the MDC in the inclusive
government which has been disastrous and dangerous which will
cost them dearly. Their stay in government has exposed them as a
party incapable of forming the next government. Despite warning
from the Freedom House survey that showed the party losing ground
from its traditional support base, the MDC chose to lash at empirical
evidence.
The biggest
travesty committed by the MDC was its betrayal of its founding principles
epitomised by the constitution making process for the country. Instead
of pushing for a people driven process as articulated by the founding
documents they desperately tried to convince alliance partners,
the ZCTU,
NCA and ZINASU
who were strongly against the flawed politician driven process that
the process was a good one.
That-s
where they lost it all, they were short-sighted and wanted immediate
power as they argued during that time that a new constitution will
get rid of Mugabe. So funny how they imagined that ZANU PF was sincere
in that short space of time considering that it was the same party
which had maimed, raped, killed and jailed MDC supporters in the
last decade, despite this trend continuing in the GNU the MDC chooses
to cast a blind eye. Apart from that the MDC has become so much
comfortable in government and have since deserted their party headquarters
and they now speak in comfort of their government offices while
the party structures are in shambles and the party more isolated
than before.
The imposition
of candidates will cost them in the elections, they need to rethink
and allow for democratic processes like the holding of primary elections
if they are serious in claiming a victory over ZANU PF. What is
baffling is that the party lost the Redcliff seat in 2008 after
this imposition, with party supporters disenchanted that they threatened
to stab Tsvangirai who had to flee for cover. The current attempts
to defend the imposition of candidates by culturalising it is folly
and alien in the founding documents of the party, it will only serve
as an on-go giving ZANU PF electoral advantage. The MDC should not
fool themselves into believing that this time again they will easily
wrestle power from ZANU PF in the elections. This elections is no
longer about chanting slogans but issues-based-leadership responses
and implementable policy frameworks meant at curbing corruption,
taming and eliminating dictatorship within the party and at a national
scale, democratising the authoring of a new people driven constitution,
real economic resuscitation and growth, provision of genuine health
care and quality education to the masses inter alia sustainable
job creation guaranteeing minimum wages and salaries.
They must go
back to the drawing board and re-adopt the founding principles,
spirit and letter to the party-s formation in order to re-energise
the masses to their cause, without which it will be a catastrophe
to enter into a race where the electorate is in doubt and demobilised.
The only certain thing at the moment is that the masses of Zimbabwe
no longer want a ZANU PF government.
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
TOP
|
