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This article participates on the following special index pages:
2008 harmonised elections - Index of articles
MDC
President Morgan Tsvangirai speaks out on participation in forthcoming
election
Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC)
February 11, 2008
Last week our National
council took a decision to contest in the forthcoming elections.
l confirm myself together with the comrades around me that we are
going to contest in the presidential, parliamentary, senatorial
and local government elections.
For the last few weeks
l have been around the country on a listening tour. I have been
there under a tree, in small little huts, at the dip tank and in
the various communal fields.
What the people have
been saying to me is that they are having to walk for many miles
because of the unavailability of transport. They are having to go
for days without eating a single meal.
On this listening tour
l have been witnessing unprecedented cases of deepening poverty,
collapse of general infrastructure and the desperation with which
people have tried everything possible in order to survive. I was
touched by the sincerity of their desperation.
Ironically people were
not talking about parliamentary seats, senatorial seats or an opportunity
to go to the state house. l agree with them, that the focus of this
campaign and indeed the ideals of our struggle is how we can solve
the peoples problems.
We intend in the next
two weeks on the 23rd of February 2008, to unveil our manifesto
and our plans to reverse the current decline that is a product of
ZANU PF misrule in the last thirty years.
The Movement for Democratic
Change was born out of the failure by ZANU PF to implement the ideals
of the liberation struggle, in particular the extension of freedoms
to all as well as economic emancipation of Zimbabweans.
The working peoples convention
of February 1999, laid the foundation for our historic movement
and placed in our hands the peoples mandate to deliver change and
usher in a new government that is accountable to the people.
The recent people's convention
has reaffirmed the desire of the people of Zimbabwe for meaningful
rather than cosmetic change. We are with them.
Since then we have been
in the trenches of this democratic struggle. We have relentlessly
pursued and continue to pursue every peaceful and democratic avenue
available in order to find a solution to the crisis our country
has been plunged into by ZANU PF.
Following months
of the SADC
led negotiations between us and ZANU PF, we still have not found
conditions sufficient to guarantee a free and fair election. Mugabe
and ZANU PF have never been sincere in the pursuit of democracy
in this country, instead choosing to defend power at all costs.
We believe the election
scheduled for the 29th of March 2008, however uneven the playing
field may be, presents Zimbabweans with a fighting chance, to remove
this dictatorship.
The people won in the
election of 2000, they won in the election of 2002 and in that of
2005.
The people will win in
the election of 2008 and should Robert Mugabe choose to steal their
victory he would have consumed that last shred of legitimacy left
for his dictatorship in the region and in the world.
The people of Zimbabwe
are desperate for change. They have endured years of suffering in
abject poverty. Inflation is soaring at 25 000 percent, further
increasing the scourge of poverty.
Unemployment is now above
90% in particular the urban and rural working poor have now been
excluded from this economy.
The air in our country
is dense with the stench of poverty. Our health sector has collapsed
and death has come sooner for our young people due to the scourge
of the AIDS pandemic.1.5 million children are not in school.
The people of Zimbabwe,
are looking to us to deliver them to a new Zimbabwe. A new Zimbabwe
will give them an opportunity to make a new beginning. We are the
agents of change. Indeed we provide the dawn of a new era.
What this country needs
is a fresh start. This country needs transformation, that is, a
total paradigm shift from the culture of ZANU PF that has been institutionalised
and entrenched in our society.
A reform agenda will
not deliver us as a people, it will simply perpetuate the status
quo where the elite in ZANU PF continue to plunder the country's
meager resources while we the people suffer.
Our people need hope.
Our people need a leadership that will never betray them, a leadership
that will include them and consult them and not make elite pacts
as a way of resolving this crisis.
Our people need a leadership
they have worked with since the beginning of our democratic struggle.
We are that leadership and we wish to take this opportunity to renew
our covenant with the people and commit ourselves to the ideals
and aspirations of every Zimbabwean.
Together we can deliver
a new Zimbabwe. Now is the time.
Morgan Tsvangirai
President
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