“It’s in the Structure Stupid!”

ZEC Chairperson, Justice Priscilla Chigumba

The election in Zimbabwe is over. The excitement of the campaign has passed. The quiet patience of voting day has also passed and the tragedy of the aftermath hangs heavy over our heads as we mourn the senseless deaths of six citizens.

It is now time to put our emotions aside and reflect on what went well and what didn’t. We must move beyond the emotional cries of rigging, the urban anger at rural voters and the rural voters’ silent but deafening response in the number of votes they cast.

So what really happened for Zimbabwe to have the election result we have? In the same way Bill Clinton’s famous campaign phrase “it’s the economy stupid” sought to highlight that the economy was what voters were most worried about, so it is that the administrative structures of the parties that contested this election determined their rate of success.

Norton’s Independent MP Temba Mliswa provided insight during one of the countless press conferences that characterised this election period, he said “politics hakusi kunhonga mazhanje” loosely translated this means politics isn’t like harvesting wild fruit that has fallen to the ground.

The message being that politics isn’t easy, it’s about strategy, planning, insight and foresight and at the end of the day this is what wins the day. An election is not won through the numbers that attend rallies and social media debates.
It is won long before voting day out of the public eye behind closed doors through developing strategies and then implementing them successfully.

For planning and strategising to be successful one must have a robust administrative structure. Such a structure is at the core of any organisation or institution. It is the skeleton that holds everything up and ensures that every part of the body can work as it should. Without it the best-resourced organisation and the most talented individuals will not achieve much.

After November 17, 2017 Zimbabwe’s two main political parties MDC T and Zanu PF were weak and fractured. The MDC T had an ailing president who was presiding over a party with three Vice Presidents, two of whom he had appointed contrary to his party’s constitution.

Zanu Pf had undergone more than four years of vicious faction fighting in full view of the nation and the world. When November’s military intervention came Zimbabweans hoped that it had brought to an end the ugly conflict that had accelerated the economy’s free fall.

At his inauguration in November 2017, ED Mnangagwa surprised the world by stating that elections would be held within the constitutionally stipulated period. This was surprising because Zanu PF was deeply divided and the economy the Zanu PF government had presided over in tatters. Most expected that the ruling party would buy themselves time to salvage their tattered reputation.

On the other hand, MDC T’s leader, Morgan Tsvangirai was terminally ill. There was no succession plan in place, resulting in the three deputies vying bitterly for the party leadership position. At that time an agreement had been reached between Tsvangirai, Tendai Biti (PDP), Welshman Ncube (MDC N) and other smaller political parties to form an alliance to fight the next election. As the only constitutionally elected deputy, Thokozani Khupe protested against the unconstitutional appointment of Nelson Chamisa and Elias Mudzuri as deputies by not attending any meetings they called. She was ultimately sidelined.

The two parties, now faced with an election had to consolidate and move forward.

MDC T’s leader Tsvangirai died five months before the election, creating a leadership vacuum. The battle to fill this space was characterised by violence, misogyny and tribalism. It resulted in Nelson Chamisa emerging as the leader of the MDC Alliance and Thokozani Khupe at the helm of the MDC T party. The MDC Alliance under Nelson Chamisa’s leadership gained the support of the populous and as the election period progressed, the Alliance and Chamisa’s support base swelled.

The campaigning environment meant that for the first time, opposition parties had access to rural areas, where the Alliance made significant inroads. This was reflected by the Afro Barometer pre-election poll that registered a significant increase in the Alliance’s popularity within the short campaign period.

Buoyed by the huge turnout at their rallies, the Alliance was convinced that the election would deliver the victory they wanted. Election day did not and this is why.

The MDC Alliance arrived at Election Day armed with little more than the large crowds at their rallies. They were and still are an alliance, their locus standi is not that of a political party. The political party is the MDC T to which none of the members of the Alliance still belong. The Alliance has no Constitution to inform the shape and form their structure should assume.

Apart from the President Nelson Chamisa, no one else has an official title or portfolio. Douglas Mwonzora is being referred to as the Secretary General but he was the Secretary General of the MDC T. The MDC T held a congress in April 2018 and elected Nixon Nyikadzino as the party’s new Secretary General.

Emphasising this opaqueness is the fact that the media are referring to Tendai Biti as a “co-leader” of the MDC Alliance because no structure exists within which he has a position. Apart from the lis

Please follow and like us:
error
Source: Business Times

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Widgetized Section

Go to Admin » appearance » Widgets » and move a widget into Advertise Widget Zone