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MDC applauds Botswana election
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
October 19, 2009

The MDC congratulates the people of Botswana and President Ian Khama for holding a peaceful election which serves as a major lesson to the rest of Africa and the region that it is possible to hold a free and fair election with an uncontested result.

It was a bloodless election where all parties contested freely. A free and diverse media covered the polls while citizens freely voted and campaigned for political parties and candidates of their choice.

The MDC believes that the election in Botswana and the recent election in South Africa have sent a clear lesson to both the emerging and established dictators in Africa that the people's unfettered will must be allowed to prevail.

Since the democratic election in South Africa held in July, Africa can only marvel at the emerging tempo and the changing times on our continent and the region. Our neighbours in South Africa and Botswana have sent a clear message that the feudal politics of machetes, knobkerries and guns have no place in modern Africa and violent polls must be a subject for the archives.

The MDC is a party of excellence. We believe in the proud citizens of Africa choosing their leaders with neither fear nor coercion. We believe in free and fair elections; free and fair polls with undisputed results as necessary preconditions for breeding legitimate governments and leaders.

As they struggle for real change, Zimbabweans feel inspired by the sovereign right enjoyed by their neighbours in Botswana to elect a government of their choice.

Democracy is a prerequisite for development. There cannot be any development in Africa without the necessary democratic tenets and practices such as free and fair elections.

As we fight for the people's hope, dignity, prosperity, security and freedom, we remain alive to the thriving democracy amongst our neighbours, where election results are not privatized but are announced expeditiously so that the elected government can immediately begin to transact the people's business.

Together to the end, marching to a new Zimbabwe.

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