The road to court is nicely tarred Mr Chamisa

IF the MDC-Alliance’s electoral grievances are genuine, Mr Nelson Chamisa and his group of crybabies should go to court as the opposition is full of lawyers. This is what President Mnangagwa in effect said yesterday when he met The Elders at State House for a chat on the prospects for a peaceful election — the most democratic and open in Zimbabwe’s history.

In his meeting with The Elders — a group of global leaders “working for peace and human rights” — President Mnangagwa made it clear the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) is an independent body, and Government has no say or involvement in its operations as claimed by the opposition under the MDC-Alliance banner.

The President said if anybody had issues with ZEC, the courts — another independent institution — are there to resolve the matter.

“They (ZEC) are guided by the Electoral Act of the country as well as the Constitution. Those who feel that ZEC has not complied with the law or Constitution, our courts are open for them to deal with such issues,” said President Mnangagwa as he briefed journalists on his meeting with The Elders.

We wonder why the MDC-Alliance has not taken that route to date if at all it has tangible grievances worth of any judge’s ear concerning the manner ZEC chair Justice Priscilla Chigumba has conducted herself so far.

Insulting Justice Chigumba or threatening her person is not only self-defeating, but frames the MDC-Alliance in the eyes of the international community as both childish and violent. The reality is there for everyone to see.

Justice Chigumba has handled the electoral process with the maturity of someone worth the office.

President Mnangagwa, his Government and Zanu-PF have managed to handle the transition in Zimbabwe from a nation known for intolerance, especially during elections, to a shining democracy in just half a year since the new administration took over from Mr Robert Mugabe.

In the past, the opposition pitched its politics on the deficiency of democracy in Zimbabwe, an unfriendly investment climate as epitomised by Mr Mugabe’s blanket indigenisation policy and global isolation of the country, among other issues then quite evident.

President Mnangagwa has, within a short time, righted the wrongs by his predecessor, in the process not only robbing the opposition of a campaign manifesto, but also reaping its anger.

With no manifesto, Mr Chamisa and his alliance partners turned their frustration on Justice Chigumba too.

It is, however, evident that the electoral field has been squared and even organisations in the civic society who have historically sided with the MDC-T since its formation — have seen the light and given Caesar what is due to him.

The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) on Thursday, dismissed one of Mr Chamisa’s major complaints in this election — the issue of the voters’ roll.

The MDC-Alliance claims the voters’ roll has been heavily manipulated by ZEC to favour Zanu-PF and President Mnangagwa. But ZESN, which audited the voters’ roll, says the roll is accurate and far better than the one used in the 2013 elections.

In a statement released by its chair Mr Andrew Makoni, ZESN said: “In terms of accuracy, the audit did not identify any anomalies in the 2018 voters’ roll that affected a large percentage of the registrants or were they concentrated amongst registrants of a particular area, gender or age.”

We also reiterate that Mr Chamisa was a co-chair in the Parliament panel which interviewed ZEC commissioners, including Justice Chigumba, and he has confessed to this.

He made the confession when he addressed a Press conference in Harare on July 4 this year saying: “By the way I want to share with colleagues, I was responsible for the interviews of most of ZEC commissioners, but from a parliamentary perspective.”

For him to now pretend as if Zanu-PF handpicked people from its Politburo to run the elections is to take Zimbabweans too much for granted.

It is the MDC-Alliance that seeks to control ZEC to ensure it bends the law in its favour.

It has not found joy in those efforts and now seeks to destabilise the election and our beloved motherland.

ZEC, as noted by President Mnangagwa in Mutare yesterday, was not birthed by Zanu-PF.

It is a creation of the Constitution and must be respected as such.

No amount of screaming and shouting will push ZEC to dance solely to Mr Chamisa’s tune.