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Sharon Hofisi Legal Letters
The current World Cup will end on July 15 2018, some 15 days before Zimbabwe goes to the ballot to choose the next President, parliamentarians and councillors. We witnessed fine Ronaldo moments during the Spain and Portugal match. The clash – a six-goal thriller – saw two goals coming as a result of the breach of the Rules of the Game – leading to a penalty and a free kick.

Up stepped Ronaldo. He properly managed big match temperament and ensured that Portugal drew with Spain. No need for a jackknife technique for Ronaldo and Portugal. The same approach is needed in this election period. Elections are a moment of disciplined concentration for the competing parties. The campaign period must be used to benchmark the party victory. The victory is simply an outcome waiting to be prepared for. It summons the players to respond today. Predictably, campaign intelligence is greatly needed for the players in the electoral field if they are to be part of the governance mould to come.

The rules of politics are easy to learn – the Constitution gives the age requirements for presidents and parliamentarians. We hope to see a change in the age limit in line with what’s obtaining across the globe. The 40-year requirement for appointment as President of the Republic is too much.

Ask me why and I tell you that the rules of politics are very easy to master up to the point where they can end in anxiety amongst supporters or rather generate a feel-good factor. Whether you read “or” conjunctively or disjunctively, oftentimes we witnessed an election in Zimbabwe punctuated by many incidents of violence and intimidation of opponents in open fashion. Sometimes we witnessed gloomy pictures of beatings, murders, kidnappings, disappearances, malicious arrests, and so forth.

Added to the above are mental fog lifts which are created by the fear of political victimisation and other uncertainties. Political intolerance was for long a stumbling block to the development of the rule of law in this our beloved motherland. The electoral campaigns in years gone by could not proceed with confidence and enthusiasm.

Enter 2018. We have seen the outcomes of the primary elections in the parties led by frontrunners President Mnangagwa and Advocate Nelson Chamisa. We have witnessed the confirmation of lists of candidates and their nomination at the Nomination Court. The agreeable irony of these developments is that although the frontrunners are leading the way and supporters are taking a backseat, supporters and critics seem to be more enthused with the electoral process even more than they do – don’t forget the marches and promises from MDC Alliance and ZANU-PF supporters on using their vote to win the governance seat.

Of course, politics is a contest full of next-to-the-last mistakes; blemishes and imperfections. Yet many aspects of politics can be practised with relative calmness. There are techniques of managing supporters, stakeholders such as observers or monitors and the outside world. It is the underlying reason in politics and law of elections that I focus on campaign intelligence as nothing more than emotional intelligence.

Decorum is needed before embarking on electioneering and other campaign strategies. Rules on pre-campaigning and the actual campaigning period must be observed with the view of encouraging supporters to properly cast their vote on the actual voting day. The supporter must be warned on the do’s and don’ts of the day: do you wear party regalia; how spoiled votes make a party lose its way; how not to risk being arrested for election-related offences; how to value the differences between the presidential and other votes; how voters can be assisted to cast their vote; and so forth.

Little big things make the supporter become aware of the richness and scope of casting a vote for their candidate. The key candidate must know at this moment that he or she can yield or thwart the possibility of victory by associating themselves with a large number of promises which are dissociated with a great many supporters.

In many instances, the ordinary voter seems like a sailor on the first voyage – he needs guidance on what to do. Huge steps can be made if the voters are made to learn the do’s and unlearn don’ts and appreciate the particular and general rules of the ballot box. Put simply, they must prepare how to make every vote count based on such appreciation.

Whether political parties or independent candidates use or don’t use the broadcast; print or electronic media, the important talking point is politics of maturity. Social media must enable the candidate to zone with his support base. Supporters and critics want to see the hope and benefit of it. Rules of anticipation of victory are obviously supposed to be followed to the letter. Candidates have their party and other personal or professional duties to attend to. Their commitment to such duties may create a fair amount of discomfort to supporters or critics of another camp. A moment to compose oneself emotionally is needed; lest candidates may think that their candidate is only flattering to deceive them on the election stage.

I am not saying the campaign period is going to be easy. I am saying those who vouched their energy and ability to be part of the political governance vein after the 2018 elections must demonstrate the big stage temperance at this critical stage – July 30 2018 is only a month and some days away.

I know they are aware of the mental blocks associated with elections. Let me focus a bit on the lessons drawn from big stages such as football. We saw players giving high-fives to their supporters showing fine moments before kick-off in the current World Cup. We also saw how the world’s most beautiful game has changed remarkably -those with fine records of goal-scoring like Lionel Messi or Neymar Junior appearing to lose the big match temperament expected of them.

The gifted Messi missed a penalty against Iceland and social media was awash moments later with images calling him “Miss Penalty”. The mighty impressive Swiss performance saw terrific performances from Coutinho and Neymar failing to count for goals that could have put football giants Brazil in the driving seat in their group.

Balls from Brazil’s players were rolling away and away from the Swiss goal area. It ended up being an attacking team being cancelled out by a defence team. I saw an enormous red balloon flying into the playing field. I thought perhaps it had been flown to signal that the teams were scarcely threatening each other. I expected Neymar’s moments when he was taking free kicks near the Swiss goal to be finer moments. But he chose not to go for goal as Portugal’s Ronaldo did.

What about the Mexican wave. Germany’s problems occasioned by the defeat to Mexico meant that they may not successfully defend their title. Argentina’s draw with Iceland may shatter their progress into the next stage. Even the star-studded Brazil team also felt what it is like to concede soft, free and easy goals in critical moments.

What a way to start it was for Brazil, Coutinho putting Brazil in the driving seat. But a powerful header from Zuber created anxiety for Brazil and their fans. Equally so, Mexican fans cheered their victory when Mexico held their own against Germany. A slender one-nil victory was enough to make Germany lose their World Cup opener in a long, long time.

And so with millions of Zimbabweans – with all their expectations in this year’s election – an oasis of unity; rising expectations of victory, and a community of electoral confidence is being formed to make a difference in the ballot box. The electorate and the candidates may have problems here and there but they must make sure that Zimbabweans commit to peace, more peace and only peace. We must peacefully unravel the conundrum on blame shift between actors in this campaign period.

We must examine little foxes that can affect the outcome of this election. Chiefly I emphasise that Zimbabweans must live peace and practise it. Political practitioners must shun things like electoral fraud; hate speech; political violence and electioneering.

Elections, like love or sport, have the capacity to make people happy or sad. I make this dictum of course being mindful of the fact that goodness is the only investment which pays.

Sharon Hofisi is a UZ lecturer in Administrative Law. [email protected]