Flawed Electoral process needs to be challenged

The current electoral process leading to the March elections is embarrassingly flawed and tilted in favor of ZANU PF. This is the reason behind Robert Mugabe's declaration that he is "raring to go and fly."Commentators and independent observers have always been exposing the obvious bias of the electoral commission which is handpicked by Mugabe himself, the delimitation commission which came up with constituent boundaries without the parliament debating the merits and demerits of this contentious issue, the lack of freedom of association and expression for the opposition, the denial of the diaspora vote, the flawed voter registration process, and the warped electoral act among other litany of imperfections.

Tragically, the South African Foreign Affairs minister, Mr. Aziz Pahad, believes that elections which are going to be held under the current environment will solve Zimbabwe's crisis or to quote him, "save Zimbabwe." It is interesting to note that he agrees with the popular sentiment that Zimbabwe needs salvation. Generally, the belief was that the SADC-initiated dialogue was the panacea that Zimbabwe needed and ironically Mr Pahad's government was tasked with facilitating that process. Sceptics, pessimists, optimists and everyone else agree that South Africa failed dismally as the talks between the MDC and ZANU PF collapsed without an agreement being reached by the protagonists and antagonists. Opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, even remonstrated with Thabo Mbeki to be courageous and confront Mugabe's obstinacy.

The question which arises for the progressive movement is "whither to?."The answer to this enquiry lies in, a sustained and concerted campaign against this electoral process through a myriad of strategies that include: the current ZINASU approach of demonstrations, court challenges, lobbying strategic institutions such as SADC, AU, EU, UN, etc, media sensitization,public forums, urgent appeals and petitions among other viable strategies.

The timeline for this campaign is determined by the immediate need to curtail Robert Mugabe's endless quest to rule Zimbabwe by hook or crook. Therefore, a timely intervention is required to avoid the proverbial cry over spilt milk. This is not the time to repeat the same old headline, "Mugabe wins a controversial election."

This writer is appealing to all progressive Zimbabweans to summon their organizational capabilities and infleunces and work towards discrediting the current electoral system so that Zimbabwe's political future
wont rest in Mugabe's unilateral, personal and selfish vision.