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The MDC want the world to believe that elections which were held in the country were rigged by Zanu-PF.

Mukachana Hanyani
ELECTIONS come and go and in life if one tries and fails the best thing to do is to accept defeat and life goes on. There is a mentality within the losers that there is never a free and fair election in Africa.
They always complain that the level playing ground is always tilted in favour of the ruling party.
Harmonised elections which were held on July 31, 2013 brought a winner in the form of Zanu-PF and the MDC-T, being the loser, should accept defeat and let the people of Zimbabwe move on. Surprisingly, the MDC-T and its host of supporters including non-governmental organisations in the country want the world to believe that elections which were held in the country were rigged by Zanu-PF failing to appreciate that Zanu-PF did well to make the electorate appreciate and understand the party’s manifesto.

They fail to believe that Zanu-PF was able to make people like their manifesto as it was well articulated well. Allegations that elections were not fair by the MDC-T cannot be disputed but people dispute that the elections were rigged by Zanu-PF. A lot of things make it possible for the right thinking people to conclude that elections which were held in the country were not fair as quite a number of issues were not resolved.
When the Sadc observer team finally presented its report to the people of Zimbabwe on how elections were held, the team said that elections were free, peaceful and generally credible choosing to omit the word fair. Why?

It was not fair because the level playing ground was not fair to all contestants who were taking part in the harmonised elections. On the part of the MDC-T, the party said that the security sector and media must be reformed before elections are held and to them that was not done. They demanded electronic voters’ roll to be given to them in time not the situation where they got it just before elections. Well that was on the part of the MDC-T. If one looks at the other side you would see that elections were not fair even to the Zanu-PF party which won the elections. A number of issues which Zanu-PF wanted resolved were not resolved before elections. How could elections be fair if the country holds elections with top Zanu-PF leaders are under sanctions?

How could elections be fair when companies linked to Zanu-PF are under sanctions? How could elections be fair when pirate radio stations, which the leaders in the GPA agreed that they should be banned, were still broadcasting hate speech against Zanu-PF?

While the MDC-T was crying that there has to be media reforms in the country, the same party enjoyed the broadcasts from pirate radio stations as they blasted Zanu-PF left, right and centre. The MDC-T failed to fulfil its obligation of denouncing pirate radio stations as the party was enjoying wide coverage from such pirate radios. While the MDC-T party was crying for media reforms to be effected in the country before elections the same party was silent in denouncing the pirate radio stations which were blasting Zanu-PF.

So MDC-T should realise that the Sadc’s assessment that pirate radio stations were not doing any good for the people of Zimbabwe, hence they should be banned, was right. This should send a clear picture to the party and realise that the July 31 harmonised elections were not fair despite the fact that they were free, peaceful and generally credible.

While the MDC-T was crying for security sector reform, the same party failed to call for the lifting of sanctions which were imposed on the country by the MDC-T’s financiers. They knew that sanctions were working in their favour; hence, there was no need to denounce them. One gets surprised if the party full of learned individuals and lawyers fails to see that these elections were not fair to both sides but only chooses to look on one side. The MDC-T should realise that these elections were also a thorn to Zanu-PF because the revolutionary party went to elections with its leaders and companies under MDC-T-instigated-western-imposed sanctions.

So is it appropriate for the MDC-T to ignore such a handicap and only talk of media and security sector reforms as hindrance to fair elections, failing to recognise that pirate radio stations and sanctions on Zanu-PF leaders were also disadvantaging Zanu-PF party.

MDC-T should be in a position to realise that whenever there is elections there has to be a winner and a loser, hence, they should accept defeat and let the country move forward.

Now that the MDC-T has developed an art of being a crybaby, right thinking people would fail to understand and believe that the MDC-T has a genuine case. Since the time they got into the political landscape of this country, they have never accepted that elections won by Zanu-PF were free and fair. They have been crying since 2000 up to this day. They disregard that when elections are held there is a winner and a loser and in this case Zanu-PF is a winner and them a loser.

What this party should now do is to accept defeat and tell the western countries that the people of Zimbabwe have spoken. Sadc, AU, Comesa, ACP and other international bodies and countries came to observe elections and they all concluded that the people of Zimbabwe were given opportunity to choose their leaders without force.

All agreed that the elections were held in a free and peaceful environment giving the final conclusion that the election was generally credible. So what is MDC-T trying to do now? Now they say every country or international body, like Sadc who have given thumbs up for the Zimbabwean elections as free and credible are wrong on their assessment of events in the country. What type of a political party only thinks that those against their views are wrong and puppets of Zanu-PF and only applauds those who support them?

For this party to be taken seriously, it should accept that the people of Zimbabwe have spoken and then wait for 2018. Icho!