Poll results, Zimbabweans the winners
Posted: Saturday, May 3, 2008May 03, 2008
The Herald
THE long-awaited results of the presidential election are out and no candidate managed an outright majority, that is 50 plus 1 percent of the votes cast.
However, Zimbabweans were the winners for the maturity they showed in patiently waiting for official results in the face of sustained pressure from the West to go the Kenyan way, which would have justified external intervention.
After a painstaking verification process, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission yesterday announced that MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai garnered 47.9 percent of the vote, President Mugabe 43.2 percent, Simba Makoni 8.3 percent, and Langton Towungana 0.6 percent.
Congratulations are in order to ZEC for standing its ground and all contestants who are duty-bound to abide by the verdict of the people, but more so to the two top candidates who must now gird their loins for a run-off on a date to be announced.
As expected London and Washington were red in the face, dismissing the result as if they were party to the process let alone observers.
It is, however, not lost to us why they were livid. To them the only acceptable outcome is one that favours the opposition as they would then get returns on the investments they made into the MDC since the party's launch on September 11 1999. An investment motivated by a desire to preside over Zimbabwe by proxy and to monopolise its resources in perpetuity.
The run-off is providential as it gives us all a chance to introspect and rectify our mistakes, particularly as Tsvangirai's true colours and friends exposed themselves when they thought they had Zimbabwe under wraps.
We all saw the excitement in London and Washington, the emergence of the white erstwhile commercial farmers eager to reclaim the farms, and the way Tsvangirai hung on every word from the White House and Whitehall. It is within our power to send a clear message to these reactionaries that Zimbabwe will not allow the revolution to be stolen.
Even some in Zanu-PF whose myopia saw them nearly compromise the revolution in the mistaken belief that Simba Makoni's Mavambo project was a beginning should now realise that it nearly became the end for them. Tsvangirai, is part of a much bigger project that even he has little scope off, a project that threatens their collective interests.
It is time to close ranks in the second round to deliver a telling blow to the neo-colonial project, after which we can work on fortifying the revolution so that it is never shaken again.
We all owe that much to our living and fallen heroes who gave so much to liberate this country and the progressive world that has stood by us and continues to look to us for inspiration.
We have a duty to ensure that Zimbabwe becomes imperialism's Waterloo, it is our generational responsibility.Printer friendly version
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