Opposition facing dilemmas

The opposition Citizens for Coalition Change (CCC) faces several dilemmas following the discredited 23 August election which it insists was not free, fair and credible.

 It is not clear how CCC will proceed concerning its candidates who won House of Assembly and council seats.

Several observer missions and SADC in particular have condemned the process that culminated in the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission declaring Zanu PF’s Emmerson Mnangagwa president.

“If the process is flawed the outcome cannot be legitimate said head of the SADC Observer Mission Nevers Mumba.

When results started trickling in there was optimism among the CCC ranks as most of the early results were in their favour. Then came the Zanu PF wins with huge margins in Mashonaland and Masvingo leading up to the presidential result that showed Mnangagwa had won by 52.6%. Prior to the announcement of the presidential result, Zanu PF members called it and were already celebrating, thereby further questioning the relationship between the electoral body and the ruling party.

“Zanu PF were circulating the exact result two days earlier. Clearly they are in an unholy relationship with ZEC,” said a CCC supporter Minenhle Mguni.

CCC immediately rejected the result arguing that ZEC had brazenly robbed its presidential candidate, Nelson Chamisa of victory. The focus seemed to be on the presidential result and not the flawed process. This approach drew criticism from analysts who felt the opposition needed to condemn the whole process rather than the presidential result.

“The opposition should dismiss the whole election as a charade. We understand that their presidential candidate may have won despite the blatant cheating by ZEC but the whole process remains flawed. If they insist on having won the presidential result, then they are in disagreement with  SADC which condemned the whole charade. They cannot have their cake and eat it,” said Oswald Sibanda.

Rumours about the opposition approaching the courts that have repeatedly favoured Zanu PF were awash on social media. While some supporters were happy with the legal route, some were sceptical about it, arguing that the courts have repeatedly shown themselves to be captured by the ruling party.

Party lawyer Thabani Mpofu added to the intrigue with cryptic posts on microblogging site X where in one post he appeared to make an argument for winning candidates  to join parliament.

“You have $100 in $1 notes, a thief snatches $63 and you fight hard to keep the $37; do you hand over the $37 to them in order to make the point that you have been stolen from or you keep the $37 and still try to fight for your $63?” he posted.

He followed that up with another post that seemed to confirm that the party was considering going to court.

“A good lawyer knows when to be stupid.

A brilliant lawyer actually becomes stupid for the good of his client.

The legend just does not care.

Which type do you want to see turn up Zimbabwe?”

It seems that the party is continuing on its “strategic ambiguity path” that Nelson Chamisa espouses.

Two days ago CCC held a press conference which informed the nation that the party rejects the whole election process and the result. It called for a fresh election supervised by international bodies. Deputy Spokesperson Gift Siziba, kept the cards close to his chest when journalists pestered him on whether the party was going to court.

It was also not immediately clear whether the party’s rejection of the sham election also meant that  party MPs and councillors would still take up their positions.

“The party won 73 seats in parliament and withdrawing the MPs would give Zanu PF the two thirds majority it craves. Knowing Zanu PF, there is no guarantee that CCC’s diplomatic offensive will lead to a rerun of the election. I think they should take up those seats because Zanu PF will go on to change the constitution. It is a very hard choice for the opposition to make. If they go to parliament and council, they sanitise the flawed election. If they do not, Zanu PF will happily go it alone and craft more draconian laws as well as change the constitution. CCC are damned if they do and damned if they don’t-a very unenviable position for them,” said Sibanda.

A Bulawayo-based MP-elect told Community Podium that CCC would be going to parliament.

There is also a call for protests calling for a fresh election that are supposed to start on September the 1st. Even though the party has not officially called for the protests it has not moved to dismiss them thereby giving tacit approval to the activists who are organising the protests.

“I think the opposition is trying its hand on a multi-pronged approach at pressuring the regime to accept fresh elections but this is a tall order. SADC can only make recommendations to Zanu PF, it cannot literally force the regime to rerun the election. According to the constitution only ZEC can conduct elections.

At the same time it will be very difficult for the regime to effectively run the country after a discredited election. It is likely to be placed under more sanctions and things will be more difficult for Zimbabweans,” Sibanda said.

Since its establishment in 1992, SADC has never run an election of a sovereign member state. In 2008, when Zimbabwe had a disputed election, SADC sent a mediation team led by Thabo Mbeki that facilitated negotiations that went on to birth a Government of National Unity (GNU) which ran from 2009 to 2013.