Zimbabweans who had pinned their hopes on the possibility of a grand coalition of opposition political parties to challenge President Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF in the 2018 elections should be disappointed with the slow pace of negotiations.
With just over six months before a possible vote next year, people expected that by now, the grand coalition could have been put in place so that the grouping starts the actual work.
A lot of work needs to be done for the grand coalition to mount a serious challenge to the well-oiled Zanu PF which enjoys the power of incumbency.
By now, people thought the different political parties in the coalition should have been allocated constituencies to fight for, hence deploy campaign teams to mobilise and coordinate the registration of their members as voters.
While the MDC Alliance has been formed, it is just a portion of the grand — basically a regrouping of former MDC deserters who have “come back home”.
Like has been said before, a grand coalition can only be possible if politicians throw away their egos and say for once they are there to serve the people and not their selfish interests.
The bickering over who should lead the party or who should get more seats should not be used as an excuse to stop the revolution.
It is sad that Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the biggest opposition party — MDC — is behaving like a bully in the grand coalition negotiations.
For any grand coalition to work, Tsvangirai should not act as the lead negotiator because he too is an interested party. Instead, there is need for neutral negotiators who will be able to bring all interested political parties to the table.
Already, Tsvangirai has “appointed” himself leader of the MDC Alliance and he is running the show, a development that has sent wrong signals of intention to Joice Mujuru’s National People’s Party (NPP) which is key in the mooted grand coalition project.
Mujuru’s NPP has dug its foot and tabled demands that suit them and you cannot blame them.
But with the slow pace and confusion panning out in the grand coalition, there is not much time to allow for continued deadlocks.
Opposition political parties should be out there campaigning because, as we speak, very little is being done on the ground, and this is where the voters are.
Interestingly, the opposition parties have known of the 2018 elections all along. Running around to try and force a coalition today betrays the revolution.
And we cannot overemphasise the fact that election campaigns of this nature need funding, and big money for that matter that will cover campaign adverts in print and electronic media; campaign posters and flyers; logistics (cars, accommodation, food) to rallies across the country by campaign teams. Daily News
