Why is nobody dancing?

When the results of the elections were announced Zanu (PF) posted a miraculous victory- but hardly any of their supporters were celebrating. It was clear that, like the team I have just referred to, they did not share in the victory. In fact, they couldn’t even believe that they had won. They were fully aware of the eerie reality that not only was their match a walkover, but a thrown one for that matter.

I talked to many of the party’s supporters who I have always known, among them a few high -ranking military officers. They all shook their heads and were lost for words. One of them told me: “Of course, it is good thing that Zanu (PF) won, but….hey!” His response summed it up.

Dear reader, do you recall what I said in this space several months ago? I queried why Robert Mugabe had been calling for elections since December 2010. I then postulated that he knew what he was stepping on, otherwise he couldn’t have any reason to be so confident of victory. I said he and his strategists were afraid that the longer it took before the elections, the greater the chances that their scheme would be exposed.

As we know now, the July 31 polls were rushed, clearly to avoid dallying and possible exposure. I also told you the Zanu (PF) clarion call for peace ahead of the polls was ominous. I never for a single moment believed that Mugabe had all of a sudden undergone the Damascan switch and cast his degrees of violence into Lake Kariba.

I noticed with curiosity how the message of peace cascaded down to the Zanu (PF) cell, save one or two incidents here and there. I was also amused by the fact that the police, in a dramatic shift from their past, actually arrested some Zanu (PF) supporters pulling down the posters of their opponents.

All that, of course, was part of a grand scheme! Mugabe had realised, in the twilight of his political career during which generations have lived and died, that he needed legitimacy. 2008 had taught him the lesson that violence was not the best or wisest way to keep in power, considering the condemnation he suffered after the June 2008 run-off.

So there had to be another way of gaining victory. While we all barked up the wrong tree the whole day, celebrating the facade of peace, Zanu (PF), courtesy of Nikuv and the Chinese, had built a web of fraud around the voting process, starting with the voters’ roll.

How else could you explain the astounding resurgence of Zanu (PF) in Manicaland, Matabeleland South and the urban areas? What magic wand did they wave in the dry and poor Mat South to make Mugabe turn into a darling? How come there were thousands of people who voted with voters’ slips without appearing in the voters’ role? Why were the margins in urban areas so small but gargantuan in rural areas?

How come MDC-T rallies attracted phenomenal crowds as compared to those of Zanu (PF), even though they had been forcing people to attend their meetings, yet there was reversal of that when it came to actual voting? Why was ZEC so stingy with the voters’ roll? What has Joseph Chinotimba done this time around to persuade people that he is worthy of being an MP, and who expects much from him in the House of Assembly? How do you explain that 24,000 people voted at supersonic speed in one constituency in 12 hours when, in the 2008 elections, polling officers struggled with the numbers over two days?

All these questions and more are the reasons why the so-called Zanu (PF) supporters are not celebrating. They are as confused as I am shocked and saddened.

If at all there are people who are celebrating, it is Mugabe, the top securocrats, Emmerson Mnangagwa – the Old Man’s Chief Election Agent, and a handful of others. These are the only people who will benefit from the daylight robbery. For the majority of the people, the chickens will roost earlier than anticipated, as we walk back into the netherworld. – For feedback, please write to majonitt@gmail.com