Zimbabwe Information Center in North America
A project of the North American Coalition for a Free Zimbabwe (NACFREEZ)
MDC
By Stanford G. Mukasa
Letter from America
February 15, 2010
MDC must insist on iron-clad guarantees for free and fair elections
The harsh judgment on Robert Mugabe and ZANU is coming fast from all sides.The European Union representatives have recommended that targeted sanctions against Mugabe and ZANU must continue.
Mugabe’s partner in the transitional administration, Morgan Tsvangirai of the MDC-T, has declared a deadlock in negotiations on the global political agreement with ZANU and is now calling for new free and fair elections.
In addition, the strike by civil servants is gathering momentum with reports more unions are planning to join the strike.
The public and international judgment on the global political agreement is that its full implementation has been a complete failure , even though there were some promising aspects in the area of economic growth and fiscal reforms.
Yet when the global political agreement was signed and a new transitional administration formed a year ago, there was great jubilation among many Zimbabweans.
But there were also many other Zimbabweans who were skeptical that Mugabe and ZANU were sincere and were going to honor the agreement.
There were visible and obvious signs right from the beginning that all was not well with the implementation of the global political agreement. Mugabe and ZANU were hell-bent to undermine the agreement.
According to Amnesty International and other organizations that have been monitoring the situation in Zimbabwe, there has not been a noticeable and significant improvement in human rights in Zimbabwe.
Amnesty International pointed out that torture, harassment and politically motivated prosecutions of human rights defenders and perceived opponents have persisted, while villagers in parts of Zimbabwe have suffered ceaseless intimidation by supporters of former ruling party ZANU-PF.
"The Attorney General's office, police and army have been left to freely violate human rights in pursuit of a political agenda," said Erwin van der Borght, Africa Director at Amnesty International.
In 1958, Nigerian novelist, Chinhua Achebe, wrote a book called Things Fall Apart. The book may have been an apocalyptic description of what was to happen to Zimbabwe 52 years later.
Mugabe and ZANU are trying to hold on to their repressive machinery. It represents the only world that they are familiar with.
But they also know only too well that their criminal habits and practices of looting the state assets, inflicting violence and mayhem on innocent civilians and rigging elections or refusing to accept electoral defeat are against the political culture of the modern Zimbabweans.
Everyone knows that Mugabe must rely on violence to stay in power. A recent poll suggested that if elections were held today, Mugabe would be very lucky to win 30 percent of the votes.
This, incidentally is exactly what Mugabe and ZANU got in the 2008 presidential and parliamentary elections before he changed the numbers.
Mugabe is fully aware that he no longer has any support from Zimbabweans. Zimbabweans know that Mugabe is refusing to fully implement the global agreement. They are also very much aware that MDC has been effective in a space of just one year within taking office in making noticeable improvements in the economy which resulted in the retiring of the worthless and much hated Zimbabwe dollar.
Even more, Tsvangirai and the MDC ministers have been recognized internationally. They have no travel restrictions and they can go to any country where they have been treated with respect, and have managed to win millions of dollars to improve Zimbabwe’s economy.
In a remarkable contrast, Mugabe and ZANU behave like common criminals, which they, in fact, are. In all their international interactions, they are always in an attack mode. They want their point of view to prevail. They do not believe in give and take.
Quite frankly, both the international community and the majority of Zimbabweans prefer a Zimbabwean government that is run by the MDC led by Tsvangirai.
The selection of leaders for Zimbabwe is a constitutional responsibility of the people of Zimbabwe.
The compelling need for new elections is a logical tenet of a democratic theory that, if the leadership fails to carry out their mandate, they should go back to the people for new elections.
One example of the leadership failure is the global political agreement has not been fully implemented. The transitional administration is in a state of paralysis, dysfunctional and unable to progressively advance the interests of Zimbabweans.
MDC and ZANU have failed to work collaboratively together largely because of Mugabe’s intransigence. A lion’s share of power in the transitional administration is held by Mugabe and ZANU, and Tsvangirai and the MDC are increasingly being marginalized.
ZANU ministers in the transitional administration are openly defying Tsvangirai. Tsvangirai himself is barred by lower officers loyal to ZANU from visiting jails to inspect the condition of the Zimbabwe’s prison system. The army chiefs have starkly refused to meet Tsvangirai. They say they do not recognize him. Yet Tsvangirai is the prime minister with clearly defined executive powers.
These are the indicators of a deadlocked transitional administration. Negotiations for the full implementation of the global political agreement are now like chasing a rainbow. They are leading to nowhere because Mugabe and ZANU are refusing to give concessions needed for the full implementation of the global political agreement.
To its credit, MDC is now calling for new elections . This will effectively give Zimbabweans the final say in who will govern them. So the focus must now shift towards agreeing on the process that will lead to free and fair elections.
That process must include a complete and comprehensive overhaul of the shambolic voters roll. Mugabe and ZANU have in the past refused to open the voters roll for public inspection. They need it as it is in order to rig elections.
There must also be a substantive involvement in the process by all the global political agreement partners ; SADC, African Union and the United Nations and in all the stages of the process from auditing the voters roll, voter registration, delimitation of constituencies, campaigning, voting, counting of ballots, and the announcements of the results.
Poll results must be announced from each polling station as soon as counting is complete. The results must also be posted outside each polling station to allow independent monitors to make their independent tally of the results.
This will be a tall order for Mugabe and ZANU. They will opt for a process they will control in order to allow him to rig the elections. Mugabe and ZANU will work hand in hand with the army , police, and the militia thugs in order to manipulate the process to his favor.
MDC must insist on iron- clad guarantees for free and fair elections under conditions similar to ones listed above. The likelihood of Mugabe and ZANU accepting these conditions is virtually nonexistent. Which means there is a possibility that the negotiations for such a process for free and fair elections will most likely break down.
MDC and civil society must think far ahead and come up strategies in the event of this breakdown.