The Zimbabwe government has “little in reserve” to fight off the country’s domestic economic problems and President Robert Mugabe is effectively a rugby fullback facing a front line of opposition, says the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
In a post-mortem of the March 31 parliamentary election written at the weekend, MDC economic spokesperson Eddie Cross said in a internet letter released on Tuesday that the question now arises “as to what to do after the election” — won by Mugabe’s Zanu-PF.
Cross says Mugabe is in the same position as a rugby fullback “who found himself on the field with the ball in his hands and the entire front line bearing down on him with the intention of doing him real harm if they catch him with the ball”.
These forwards include tighter sanctions by the international community, increased regional isolation and the domestic problems of fuel and food and the collapse of the economy.
Economic problems have been “made worse” by the fact that Mugabe’s government has spent up to half-a-billion dollars on arms and aircraft in recent months.
“It now has little in reserve to fight off these domestic nightmares,” Cross said.
Referring to Mugabe’s Zanu-PF, he stated: “Most are well educated and experienced people. They know that if they move towards extending Mugabe’s term [of office from 2008] to 2010 or tightening the grip on power of the ageing oligarchy in the politburo … that this would ignite an already explosive situation in the country.”
The army is on full alert and armed roadblocks across the country are operating 24 hours a day. Cross said the government is nervous and knows that the ice under its feet is “very thin and the water below, extremely cold”.
Cross said the MDC had believed it could win 33 of 120 elected seats — given the Zanu-PF control of the electoral process — and another possible 17. In the end it won 41 seats to Mugabe’s 78 seats.
“To my mind there is little doubt that the MDC won this campaign hands down. It was better prepared, its campaign was slick and professional and I thought it was the best yet.
“We well knew that the election would not be won or lost in the campaign, but in the manner in which the actual vote was taken and counted and then announced … None of which was under the control of the MDC in any way.
“From start to finish, the election was run by Zanu-PF loyalists and the military or security services,” said Cross. — I-Net Bridge