Zimbabweans speak out – Should the MDC boycott their seats?
Following the MDC’s statement on 1 August declaring Zimbabwe’s 31 July harmonised election illegitimate, and their 3 August decision to boycott institutions of government, we asked our subscribers the following question:
Kubatana! With the MDC-T calling the election illegitimate should their elected MPs & councillors take up their seats or boycott Parliament & local government?
Around 2/3 of respondents said the MDC should boycott Parliament and local government, and not take up their seats as MPs or councillors. (This is about the same ratio that thought the 31 July election date was too soon in the first place.) The main reason for this was that to take up their seats would be to legitimise an election the MDC has called illegitimate. There was a strong sense from subscribers that “the MDC cannot have it both ways. Some respondents also thought that the MDC wouldn’t be able to accomplish anything by taking up their seats, or that Zanu PF should be left to govern the country on its own.
About 30% of respondents said the MDC should take up their seats, primarily because they had a mandate or responsibility from the people who had elected them. A few thought it was unrealistic to expect the MDC to boycott their seats, because of the benefits individual MPs and councillors get from being in office.
A small percentage were undecided or had mixed opinions on the issue.
We’ve published all of the feedback we’ve received so far here. Also, where we knew where a subscriber was writing from, we plotted their response on a map, to show the geographic distribution of opinion.
A small sampling of responses includes:
- I’m so angry at the moment that I would rather not answer that question.
- The should not and let them rule the country vari vega if the elections were free and fair the winning party why is it victimising the losing one s suporters
- yes they should boycott coz once they participate they will legitimize the fradulant election
- They should stay with the pple! Why go to parly when we know that even their results were doctored to mollify us. Mugabe and his party won – let him rule alone!
- They shd let zanu pf go it alone or since zpf intends to subvert the wil of e pple thru constitutn amndments mdc shdnt be part of it
- MDC-T elected MPs & councillors should take up their seats so as not to dissapoint pple who chose them.
- Only if they have something to do
- Plse advise mdc-t mps not to boycot. We know what happened and we heavily backing the mdc-t party. Let the skeleton mp representation fill their places in the palamnt even if they are going to snow there. They should sit in parliament and preserve the smoldering light of mdc-t. Don’t they learn frm zanu ndonga which kept its 1 seat for 20yrs? Its falling down in an unfortold political playground tricks. When politicians fall down they should stand up and run again. Why boycoting? Be like solders! We will there one day.
- They must boycott taking up of seats 2 show our disappointments. The people will speak what next. Dont be traped using money. We mustn’t be greedy about salaries.
- Mgabe’s silly, did anounced presidential results in 2 Days. In 2008 it took him a quarter year, his a typical thief. We will not loose hope. In protest our MDC MPs shoudn’t get in the parliament of cronies.
- They should not take part in council or parliament business bt Mdc must give them allowances so that they are nt tempted by the lv fo money
- That has always been the problem with MDC.They must not participert in anyway.Look at what GNU begot and the Zumas are now saying to Tsvangirai accept results.
- Participating means legitimising the illigitimate they should not b part of it people are angry
- The MDC-Ts must not take the seat because if they take the seat that means they have agred with the results
- They shoud have nothing to do with this guvnment of thieves.If they do they will have betrayed us, themselves as well.
- These are crying babies.those who won deserve their seats
- Now it’s tight it was better to boycott 31 July polls coz if they do that what about those people who elected?
- They should boycott to show the illegitimace.
- They should not take part in any part because if the election is rejected and participating amounts to acceptance which is a contradiction.
- Mr T may keep quiet but shld let Spksman, Sec Gen, Org Sec rouse the bulldust if not satisfied. Tell him so. Chiefs did lot of damage for playing fierce dragon.
- Stupid and foolish MDC candidates without Zimbabwe at heart can boycot.In elections one loses or wins. Respect results and the law.
- The must not sit with those wolves.They stole our vote and try to make it a normal process.Obasanjo, may the Lord forgive him for tellin’ the opposite of what he saw.
- They should not boycot they were elected by people who want them to serve them .they are boycoting the electorate
- They should boycot, otherwise taking up the duties will legitimise the illegitimate
- They should boycot becoz if they take office posts it will be free &fair election
- They shld not even try to work with wolfs, instead they shld concerntrate about giving their party members information about the way forward & the stance to take so that the will of the pple of zimbabwe are met without fear of the unknown person.we demand our right now !
- They should boycott .Their presents would legitimise everything after all they will never have an impact
Wednesday, August 7th 2013 at 11:54 am
I’m so confused over the current state of affairs in our beloved country. While part of me feels profoundly betrayed, disappointed and even angry with the MDC-T for participating in what was so clearly a set-up and a farce from the get-go, I also acknowledge that as Zimbabweans we just didn’t have a viable alternative. It was either go with the MDC, who were clearly outmanoeuvred & out of their depth, or by our silence and non-participation allow ZANU-PF to just waltz back into State House unopposed.
To be honest though, my disenchantment with ZANU-PF is now overshadowed by my disappointment and disenchantment with the MDC-T. Those 5 years in power that they were ‘granted’ by ZANU-PF were enough to allow them to become complacent, comfortable and very very naïve. Did Tsvangirai honestly believe that popularity alone would be enough to unseat the political machine that is ZANU-PF? They’ve had 5 years to prepare for these elections and perfect their rigging techniques. What has the MDC been doing during this time?! Grown fat and comfortable globe trotting and sitting in Parliament, supping off the crumbs fed to them by Mugabe and his cronies instead of strategising and ensuring that they’re were able to stand if not on equal footing with ZANU PF, but they were at least better able to counteract their rigging techniques. Surely at some point though they should have had the foresight to acknowledge that the playing field was skewed too much in Mugabe’s favour so the only sensible thing to do would have been to withdraw and let Mugabe to attempt another one man race. By participating and staying in what was inn effect a one-horse race they have effectively endorsed this government and given them the credibility they lacked in 2008. The bulk of the smart sanctions have been withdrawn, SADC and the AU have been given reason enough to rubber stamp this sham, and ZANU-PF have a clean slate to proceed with thanks to the efforts of the likes of Tendai Biti and David Coltart.
Essentially it’s a lose-lose situation for us the children of Zimbabwe. I wanted to refer to the analogy of the 2 elephants fighting & the grass getting trampled to describe where we are right now. But the truth is there was only ever one elephant in this battle, fighting with a very small and very naïve mouse with an inflated ego, squeaking at the top of its voice as it dodges being trampled by the older, more confident and much more experienced elephant. Have we just been witness to the proud little mouse being tossed in the air and whacked by the huge, but battle-scarred elephant into the wilderness? Maybe it’s time for us, the grass that has been trampled on incessantly by this raging, rabid elephant. Do we allow ourselves to be ground into the dirt never again to flourish and feel the nourishing rain and the rays of the sun on our heads? Or is it time for us to come together and grow so thick and verdant that we succeed in blocking out the sun creating an impenetrable barrier, and slowly drive this already senile and unsteady beast to its knees in capitulation? We have to take lessons from Egypt and the other middle Eastern countries where popular revolt has unseated despots like Mugabe. Otherwise we’re in for another very cold very harsh winter, and this I fear there’s no coming back.
Wednesday, August 7th 2013 at 2:42 pm
The MDC is a weak political party. If anyone thinks they had a chance in this election, please get of your high horse and pull your head out of your ass. Last time they had substantial number of people in parliament, what did they do? when the power sharing between the parties came, what did they do? nothing for the nation at least! only sex scandals and titles added to their names. they are a party of losers, always second fiddle. i am by no means a Zanu PF supporter but I have heard enough of this cry for MDC bullishit enough to drive me nuts. Another stupid thing blogs such as this and MDC supporters think is that mugabe has no support. Again pull your heads out of your asses and smell the fresh air, smell the coffee, see you sunlight not just the darkness of your insides (I am not a zanu supporter i remind you but a realist) most of zimbabwes population is rural or small town dwelling and zanu does shit for those people all the time, all they way from rural electrification programs to schools and donating computers and everything, all that on top of the land restructuring programme, what chance do you think tsvangirai has with them when he promises to take the land away…c’mon , be realists people and stop complaining about the obvious. i think the problem with us zimbabweans is we are too chicken shit to deal with shit, the idiot above me called “beryl m” is the type of imbecile who thinks egyptian style violence is the way forward, thank god s/he is just another faceless internet troll, the way to do it is to campaign using brains, give a true manifesto of what you will do for the people and take care of your constituence, show the people what you have done, not like MDC who have done nothing and are losing support. Even the UN said the elections where “fair” they still go around shouting about vote rigging and empty ballot papers, grow some balls and accept defeat. we need real leaders who do shit for people in a modern way… oh and again, boycotting shit by the MDC wont work, when has that ever worked, zanu doesnt need those fools, they have much less support an control than they think they have…. everyday I cry for my country not because of zanu but because the opposition is stupider and would turn our country into a worse mess…
Monday, August 19th 2013 at 2:05 pm
Since the election process was flawed resulting in flawed results which defrauded the masses of their real choice, the MDC should not legitimise the elligitimate setup which does not represent the will of Zimbabweans. MDC need not participate in protest since they and the masses are the ones who were robbed.