MUTARE —
MDC founding president Morgan Tsvangirai told supporters in Mutare Sunday his party has compiled a massive dossier detailing information on how the July 31 elections were 'stolen' by the military on behalf of President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF party.
Tsvangirai said resources to fund what he says was the ‘greatest electoral theft of our time’, were marshaled from diamond revenues, adding he has evidence showing other countries were also responsible for helping Harare rig the polls.
He said the dossier will soon be shared with the Southern African Development Community, guarantors of the Global Political Agreement that saw the formation of the unity government in 2009.
“We now have impeccable information that 35,000 youths were trained and deployed specifically in Harare, all Matabeleland provinces and here in Manicaland after Zanu PF said the people in these provinces were “resisting re-orientation programmes run by civilians.”
“Named intelligence and military intelligence department officials were working with Nikuv to manipulate the voters roll in both rural and urban areas,” he continued.
“We now know who stole how many carats, on what date, who took them to the intermediary in Angola and how much was paid as the regime mopped national resources to fund electoral theft. We now know which countries, which individuals and companies were at the centre of this electoral theft. I now have the dossier with me, which I will be sharing with heads of State in SADC and the rest of Africa.”
Tsvangirai said the election was highly militarized.
“The militarisation started with the deployment of military personnel such as former Air Vice Marshall Henry Muchena and several other former intelligence officials to work at the Zanu PF headquarters.”
“We have a list of 10 senior military officers who were deployed as co-ordinators for the July 31 election in each of the provinces,” he said.
He said problems that contributed to the election ‘farce’ were the voters’ roll, voter registration and displacement of voters, the printing of ballots, fake voter registration slips and abuse of traditional leaders and what he termed the harvest of fear.
On the way forward, he said; “As a party and as a leadership, we have been talking to the people across the country and they have told us that the way forward is for us to maintain our mass-line and to continue actively engaged in a perennial dialogue with the people, as we have always done.”
He continued: “Ours is not a boardroom movement stuck only in power point presentations and cyber activism, even though that is important in modern day politics.”
Tsvangirai urged his supporters to remain resolute as they celebrated 14 years of existence.
“We must celebrate and claim our victory,” said Tsvangirai to thousands of supporters. “In our celebration and as we claim our victory, we pledge to conduct ourselves in peace and in full compliance with the Constitution and the rights enshrined in the new people’s charter.”
He said the MDC will not use any unconstitutional means to overturn the Zanu PF landslide victory in the elections. Instead Tsvangirai urged supporters to turn to God.
“Today I want to make it clear to those who have always doubted us and our resolve for real change, that we had budgeted for a marathon and not a sprint. So we remain on course,” the MDC leader said. “We have always known that the change and the transformation that we seek are not instant coffee.”
The MDC, he said, is a political reality that cannot wished away.
Tsvangirai said resources to fund what he says was the ‘greatest electoral theft of our time’, were marshaled from diamond revenues, adding he has evidence showing other countries were also responsible for helping Harare rig the polls.
He said the dossier will soon be shared with the Southern African Development Community, guarantors of the Global Political Agreement that saw the formation of the unity government in 2009.
“We now have impeccable information that 35,000 youths were trained and deployed specifically in Harare, all Matabeleland provinces and here in Manicaland after Zanu PF said the people in these provinces were “resisting re-orientation programmes run by civilians.”
“Named intelligence and military intelligence department officials were working with Nikuv to manipulate the voters roll in both rural and urban areas,” he continued.
“We now know who stole how many carats, on what date, who took them to the intermediary in Angola and how much was paid as the regime mopped national resources to fund electoral theft. We now know which countries, which individuals and companies were at the centre of this electoral theft. I now have the dossier with me, which I will be sharing with heads of State in SADC and the rest of Africa.”
Tsvangirai said the election was highly militarized.
“The militarisation started with the deployment of military personnel such as former Air Vice Marshall Henry Muchena and several other former intelligence officials to work at the Zanu PF headquarters.”
“We have a list of 10 senior military officers who were deployed as co-ordinators for the July 31 election in each of the provinces,” he said.
He said problems that contributed to the election ‘farce’ were the voters’ roll, voter registration and displacement of voters, the printing of ballots, fake voter registration slips and abuse of traditional leaders and what he termed the harvest of fear.
On the way forward, he said; “As a party and as a leadership, we have been talking to the people across the country and they have told us that the way forward is for us to maintain our mass-line and to continue actively engaged in a perennial dialogue with the people, as we have always done.”
He continued: “Ours is not a boardroom movement stuck only in power point presentations and cyber activism, even though that is important in modern day politics.”
Tsvangirai urged his supporters to remain resolute as they celebrated 14 years of existence.
“We must celebrate and claim our victory,” said Tsvangirai to thousands of supporters. “In our celebration and as we claim our victory, we pledge to conduct ourselves in peace and in full compliance with the Constitution and the rights enshrined in the new people’s charter.”
He said the MDC will not use any unconstitutional means to overturn the Zanu PF landslide victory in the elections. Instead Tsvangirai urged supporters to turn to God.
“Today I want to make it clear to those who have always doubted us and our resolve for real change, that we had budgeted for a marathon and not a sprint. So we remain on course,” the MDC leader said. “We have always known that the change and the transformation that we seek are not instant coffee.”
The MDC, he said, is a political reality that cannot wished away.