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THIS is the era of fake news, and the regrettable phenomenon becomes pronounced especially during elections when parties staring defeat in the face seek to create self-fulfilling prophecies. The opposition MDC has long been used to crying wolf and getting its friends in the West to lap up whatever falsehoods it came up with to buttress its claims that its paucity of fortunes had to do with alleged closure of democratic space and not the alien ideologies and destructive politics the party pursued.

It thus came as a great relief to hear members of the European Union Observer Mission stationed in Chiredzi dismissing, with due contempt, claims by some fringe provincial newspapers in Masvingo that members of the EU observer mission had been subjected to intimidation by CIO operatives stationed in Chiredzi.

As we reported in The Saturday Herald, the EU election observer mission dismissed as “propaganda” reports carried by two Masvingo provincial weeklies which claimed that a member of the Central Intelligence Organisation harassed and intimidated them on Tuesday.

The observer team —which comprised Mr Friedarike Friedarike Santner from Austria and Mr Christophe Menou from France — went on to say their engagements with the people of Chiredzi were moving on smoothly despite the shocking media reports which claimed they were harassed by security agencies.

Mr Santner, who referred further questions from The Herald to EU Observer mission spokesperson Mr Eberthard Laue, said the events which unfolded did not amount to harassment.

“Journalists must desist from writing propaganda. We were never harassed like what these stories are depicting. We are just meeting the people from this town well and everything is going on smoothly.

In so doing, the EU Observer Mission led by example and set up a standard that all other observer missions coming in to Zimbabwe have to follow.
They have to be alive to the tricks of the main opposition and its surrogate groups.

Already we have seen the main opposition MDC Alliance, day in day out, seeking to destroy the credibility of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission by raising vexatious and frivolous allegations, claims and even lawsuits against the elections management body which, coincidentally is one of several commissions born out of the new Constitution whose drafting the main opposition was party to.

But a closer look at developments since the sitting of the nomination courts shows that all is not well in the MDC Alliance.
For instance it has since emerged that the MDC Alliance failed to field candidates in 46 wards that Zanu-PF has basically won uncontested, the main opposition also failed to field candidates in four National Assembly constituencies in addition to double-fielding in 14 constituencies.

What this means is the main opposition clearly knows that they are in Election 2018 to make up the numbers.
To this end we urge all observer missions to be mindful of fake news reports as well as contrived scenarios from desperate opposition parties and their surrogate groups.

Government has walked the talk on delivering an environment conducive for a free, fair, and credible election.
The opposition needs to complement Government efforts instead of seeking to detract from all the positive developments that have set the stage for what is bound to be the most credible election in the history of independent Zimbabwe.
The list of observers is impressive 46 countries, 15 regional and international organisations including, for the first time, the Association for Free Research and International Cooperation (AFRIC).
Lets all play our part.