Elections not the priority for Zimbabwe

By Courage Shumba

The continued calls by Robert Mugabe and his camp for an early and premature election against counsel urging him to wait until critical electoral and constitutional reforms are complete mirror the mind of a leader completely out of touch with the needs and pace of political Zimbabwe.

It appears dear old leader has lost grasp of the fact that the patience of the region and world has been stretched to the maximum possible elastic point. A more discerning person could have read between the lines that the suggestion for a 2015 election has personal practical benefits. Wisdom could have persuaded one to use such time to heal old wounds and not to inflict new painful ones.

The mind-set of the majority seats neatly with the view that an early election will open floodgates to violence and another contested result. A free and fair election will have one predictable outcome. There is simply no majority support left for Zanu PF in both urban and rural Zimbabwe.

For Mugabe to win in the rural areas he will have to fortify them against rival parties by making them no go areas again itself the very reason why whatever such result will come out will and should be contested and protested against.

The only sensible thing for Mugabe to do now is to climb down from insisting on holding these elections. There is no chance of a Zanu PF victory in a climate where the electoral environment is near standard. Mugabe and his people will be punished by the electorate. The people are angry with Mugabe for destroying their country and for allowing criminality and corruption within his party to go unchecked and boom into a somewhat stand-alone industry.

Common sense would lead Mugabe to consider the needs of the population, the electorate, the succession issues within his party, his own future after the election and allow a gradual climb down from the militaristic approach to ruling Zimbabwe ensuring an atmosphere is created for his own peaceful departure.

His security after such departure cannot be guaranteed by guns and threats alone without the necessary national psyche to concentrate across the divide on creating a nation with new value structures.

Neither does our success as a nation depend on a new constitution alone. Our ultimate victory as a people will be realised through working together to recapture our impeccable cultural credentials as a peace loving, hardworking and morality driven society.

In Mugabe’s reign hard work, fair play and morality was forced under resulting in a national identity crisis characterised by corruption, poverty, political chaos and a host of other emergent social ills.

It will be tragic if Mr Mugabe allowed himself to play the fool and be pushed into an election in which his incumbency cannot be guaranteed without bloodshed and electoral fraud.

The election will put Mugabe on the spotlight for sanctioning the murder and torture of the electorate to stay in office and if he is defeated in a climate of more voter intimidation and murderous campaigning the calls for justice, through his investigation and trial, will intensify. Such a call will require the investigation to cover wider abuses committed throughout his incumbency.

In practical terms this election has no advantage of benefit for Mr Mugabe or his party. That of course is not the concern. What is of concern is that it will characteristically claim human lives, lead to wanton torture and take the country off the path to economic recovery.

It is very important that this election be postponed to a time when the country has gained confidence in the process. Confidence will be built through allowing a new constitution to be put in place, ensuring the voters are thoroughly educated on their rights ,the public media is open to all parties to air campaign material, freedom of assembly and expression is guaranteed and state of the art voting and ballot counting is installed.

The idea of beating the electorate into submission is primitive and without cause. Mugabe must remember that Zimbabwe has a right to a lawfully elected legitimate president .He must also understand that neither he nor his generals can ever outrun the resistance people naturally carry in their hearts and minds against despotism. Dictatorship is on its last few steps all across the world and the struggle for freedom will always triumph.

For now I would urge the president to reign on those hardliners and lead them off the fantasy that Zimbabwe has a natural destination with abuse, corruption, violence and dictatorship. Ian Smith likewise foolishly entertained the illusion that his armies and brutal tactics offered invincibility but ultimately the Union Jack came down to the cheer and whistles of majority rule.

That will happen again. The flags of dishonesty, incompetence corruption, fraud, mismanagement are already on their way out. Mr Mugabe must know that neither violence nor threats can stop the tide of change. Zimbabwe belongs to a culture of hard work, peace, honesty and respect for life.

Courage Shumba is a former student leader and writes from the United Kingdom