Deputy Speaker tries to gag Khupe

Together with Zanu (PF) MP for Buhera, Oliver Mandipaka, Khupe was part of the SADC election observer mission to Madagascar in December. She said the preparation of the voter’s role in Madagascar was commendable, but this did not go down well with the Zanu (PF) legislators including Chinomona, who was temporarily chairing the proceedings.

Chinomona ordered Khupe not to make references to the July election as ‘the constitutional court had brought the issue to finality and no parliamentary debate would reverse the ruling’.

MDC-T Chief Whip, Innocent Gonese, challenged Chinomona to disclose the parliamentary point of order she was using to silence Khupe. “Zanu (PF)’s Mandipaka was allowed to make comparisons between Zimbabwe and Madagascar without any reprimand from the speaker. We wonder what is happening here,” he said.

If Zimbabwe could demilitarise the electoral process, accept the people’s will to prevail and register all eligible voters to participate in the plebiscite, Khupe said, election outcomes would be credible. She said Zimbabwe elections remained disputed because the process leading to the polls was heavily flawed.

Out of a population of 22 million in Madagascar, eight million were registered as voters.Political parties there addressed the same rallies after each other while the crowds would don respective parties’ regalia without hassles.

Observers for the elections were deployed in a transparent and inclusive manner, according to observer missions. The electorate was allowed to witness the ballot counting. There was no visible presence of the military as it was excluded from the process.

Khupe told parliament that it was important for Zimbabwe to acknowledge mistakes made in the past and use them as stepping stones towards acceptable elections.