Zimbabwe’s election is in legal shambles – But no one really seems to mind. Yesterday, Zimbabwe’s Constitutional Court postponed indefinitely Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa’s half-hearted application to have the Court’s 31 July election deadline extended. Chinamasa’s application came at the recommendation of SADC, which, understandably, was concerned that President Mugabe’s proclamation of a 31 July election date was done unconstitutionally, and set Zimbabwe up for an election which was illegal before it even started. Instead, the court will hear Morgan Tsvangirai and Welshman Ncube’s applications about the need for an election extension tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Nomination Court is also scheduled for tomorrow, in which parties wanting to contest in the illegal and unconstitutional 31 July election will put their candidates forward. Zimbabwe’s political parties have had their primaries, fair, rushed or otherwise. According to David Coltart, the Movement for Democratic Change led by Welshman Ncube will nominate candidates tomorrow because “although 31 July election is illegal, we must contest.”

Attempts to get an answer to the question “Given that 31 July date for #ZimElection is illegal, will yr party be nominating candidates tmrw?” from the MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai have yet to be responded to, but it seems likely they will also be fielding candidates at nomination court tomorrow.

But, on 13 June, Morgan Tsvangirai himself said of the 31 July election date: “As Morgan Tsvangirai, the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe and the President of the MDC, I will not accept a situation where Zimbabweans will yet again be railroaded and frog-marched to another illegitimate and violent election.”

So – What does refusing to be railroaded mean, exactly, if it doesn’t include refusing to contest in an illegal and unconstitutional election? As Marko Phiri pointed out when the 31 July date was announced, “if Mugabe can unilaterally call for polls, what is to stop him from declaring himself the winner” (regardless of whether he actually won or not.

If you contest in an election which you know is illegal just based on the date for which it was scheduled and the way in which it was proclaimed, what leg do you have to stand on if you try and protest its legality later?

Given that 31 July date for the Zimbabwe Election is illegal, will your party be nominating candidates tomorrow?

One of the titles I’m presently enjoying is Paul Collier’s Wars, Guns and Votes – Democracy in Dangerous Places (2009). The book makes important observations and one of the many nuggets goes: “If being honest and competent does not give you an electoral advantage, then the honest and competent will be discouraged. Crooks will replace honest candidates. One depressing indicator of such a process is that democratic politics in the countries of the bottom billion tends to attract candidates with criminal recorders…Evidently, one reason elected office is more attractive to criminals than the honest is that only criminals will take advantage of the opportunities for corruption. But there is sometimes a further reason: elected office provides immunity from prosecution” (27).

BOOM!

From a Kubatana subscriber:

Are schools Zanu PF polling bases? There were worrying developments across the country yesterday when school lessons were halted due to Zanu PF’s abuse of classrooms to conduct its primaries & forcing teachers to partake in the voting exercise.What’s so special about their primaries which caused this national impact? They must stop depriving students’ rights. Appropriate action by the Ministry of Education must be taken. Also security sector needs reform before election to avoid its details to take political sides as witnessed yesterday.

On Monday the ZANU-PF primary elections were held, which in a way should have been an example of how the 31 July elections are going to be, and if this is true, we really are in for a rough ride.

The process was chaotic with ballot boxes and papers arriving late in many of the constituencies, and in some cases prospective voters left without having voted. This chaos was worsened as some constituencies, such as Mutare central, ran out of ballot papers before everyone had voted. There have also been reports of violence and voter discrimination.

This is seriously worrying as this is just inter-party competition. If there are already reports of arson and violence then what will happen when more intense opposition is brought in? Elections sing the well-known song of violence in Zimbabwe, and, unfortunately, the preaching of “peaceful voting” has a hollow ring to it.

A recent news report says former Malawian president the late Bingu-wa-Mutharika chose Zimbabwe as one of the destinations where he could stash his cash, apparently under the guise of a Trust.

It did not come as a total surprise that he was “hiding” cash virtually everywhere under the sun under dubious charities even.

What came as a surprise was perhaps that he had chosen Zimbabwe, a country where other African despots have chosen to hide and have been welcomed as “friends of the government.”

According to Malawian news reports when Mutharika came to power in 2004, he declared that he was worth USD4.3 million, “but barely eight years into power – by the time of his untimely death in April 2012, his wealth had reportedly accrued to more than K61 billion (USD168 million).”

And then Zimbabweans are surprised why so many people are risking life and limb to contest as MP!

This is the way of the African political samurai: Stupendous wealth stands to be made, stupid!