Halfway into vote counting in the recent Zimbabwe election fiasco, presidential candidate Morgan Tsvangirai made a press statement in which he reversed his optimism for a win and denounced the elections.
I read Tsvangirai’s statement, in which he declared the elections to be a farce and “null and void” with amusement. Sometimes it is just difficult to understand what some people think or even how they think because some things are just too elementary.
A day before elections, Tsvangirai was all smiles saying “victory is certain” then it is noticed that he was losing the elections and immediately the elections turn into a farce and became null and void.
I concede that I know what Tsvangirai meant and I agree.
Among the reasons he proffered for reaching that decision were that the elections did not meet SADC Guidelines. He talked about the voters’ roll, saying that “thousands failed to register and were disenfranchised”.
Mr Tsvangirai complained that there was no proper inspection of the voters’ roll to verify authenticity.
Then he talked about the lack of transparency and double-voting in the use of both the Special Vote and the Postal Voting system.
Then he took issue with the failure to implement SADC reforms, Media reforms and Security sector reforms.
The man was spot on. He knew what he was talking about. And he was right.
“We, therefore, call for SADC and the AU audit teams to look into this process, in particular the voters roll, the ballots and the manner in which the whole process was conducted,” he said. “In our view this election does not meet the SADC, AU and international standards for a credible, legitimate, free and fair election.”
Everything Tsvangirai said was accurate and true.
My only problem is when he knew all this because he did not become aware of all these anomalies on Election Day but well, well before that.
He knew all this four years ago but was too busy being Prime minister, a post created for him so as to keep Robert Mugabe in the presidency.
Tsvangirai chose to forget that.
Some of us wrote and pontificated on these same issues over and over again for years but Tsvangirai, having already been tainted with the trappings of power, did not care.
We asked if he was doing the right thing to break away from what South Africa and SADC were demanding before elections could be held and he ignored both public and private opinion.
He was warned countless times not to go ahead with elections until all reforms had been in place and implemented.
On my part, I warned Tsvangirai so many times through many articles and in my radio broadcasts that if he went through and participated in these elections, he would have no one to blame and no one to run to when things go wrong after participating in elections without the recommended reforms had been implemented.
And that is just what has happened.
Now Tsvangirai wants SADC to intervene. As expected, SADC pronounced the elections free and fair even before people completed voting.
This is shoddy leadership at its worst. This is the third time Tsvangirai has led his party to defeat and there are always reasons, chief among which is rigging and this is something Mr Tsvangirai has been well aware of since he became leader of the MDC more than ten years ago.
I am not sure what he was alluding to in a TV interview when he said that the power is in people’s hands. Is he asking people to flood the streets Egypt-style in protest? But then those he ignored, like Jacob Zuma, now challenge him to come up with evidence of rigging and that is not going to be easy because Mugabe, as always, did his homework well like never before.
Even if Tsvangirai came up with evidence of rigging, where will it lead? Will Mugabe be disqualified?
The damage has been done and it has been done in a brutal way. In the absence of violence, Tsvangirai was lulled into a false sense of security and was not aware of all the signals and red flags we were waving at him.
Mugabe did not need violence this time around; it tainted him badly in the 2008 elections. Instead, he shifted his gimmicks elsewhere and Tsvangirai only found out hours into voting that he had been corralled into a tight spot.
If he believed that Mugabe was there to get himself voted out of power then that is the worst case of naivet├® I have ever come across.
Tsvangirai should have sat down and listened to the people. He surely could see that he has no advisors at all.
The MDC lost the election over a period of four years not on Election Day of July 31, 2013.
Tsvangirai was just too wrapped up in enjoying trappings of power and forgot to keep in step and in touch with the people. He chose to ignore that he was Prime Minister not through a vote but through compromise after the last election had been stolen from him.
To remain on top, he forgot to stay under people’s guidance. He even had a touch of arrogance towards people, taking them for granted.
Now, sadly, he has no choice but to step down and let someone with better ideas lead the party.
Tsvangirai, honestly, is not thinking of hanging on to the party presidency till the next elections? There are other ways of serving his party and I suggest he pursues those.
The people gave him an opportunity several times over and he should show leadership by stepping aside for the party to re-congregate and bring in a new leader to start mending the damage he caused.
Yes, the elections were heavily rigged to shameless degrees but still Tsvangirai went to sleep on the job because this has happened to him twice before.
He and his party lost this election starting when they joined the government of national unity.
Three times he led his troops into battle and three times he lost to the same man.
Rigging or no rigging, enough already.
All things must come to an end and it is time for the MDC to move on under new management.
Hopefully, Tsvangirai, unlike Mugabe, will recognise that the survival of the party is more important than an electoral setback suffered by its leader.
