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MDC Alliance supporters during their demonstartion in Harare on Tuesday

MDC Alliance’s political grandstanding plans were put off the rails when police and other security organs did not interfere with their senseless demonstration in Harare on Tuesday. In a bid to provoke the police, the opposition demonstrators diverted their route and marched past Munhumutapa Government offices but the police who read well their intentions, kept their distance.

Addressing the crowds, the opposition leaders took turns to make unwarranted threats to stop the forthcoming harmonised elections if the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission does not accede to their nonsensical demands.

Law experts have questioned the timing of the MDC Alliance demonstrations which are being staged after the proclamation of the election date, which is July 30.

Section 157, sub section 5 of the Constitution says: “After an election has been called, no change to the Electoral Law or to any other law relating to elections has effect for the purpose of that election.” Constitutional Law expert Professor Lovemore Madhuku said no reform can take place after the proclamation.

The MDC Alliance demonstration on Tuesday was therefore a mere political grandstanding by a political formation that has developed cold feet in participating in the pending elections. The Government and the ruling party Zanu-PF was aware of the MDC Alliance’s intentions and as such allowed the march to go ahead as provided for in the Constitution. This pre-emptied the opposition parties’ grand plan to clash with the security forces in order to send a wrong message to the international community that the establishment is curtailing people’s freedoms.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa said he has no problems with demonstrations as such rights are enshrined in the national constitution. At the end of the day, the Tuesday march demonstrated to the world that the new dispensation is walking the talk when it says Zimbabwe is open and safe for both business and equal political participation.

The Government showed that indeed there is a new political culture of tolerance and total freedom and even the opposition leader Advocate Nelson Chamisa acknowledged that the police had done a good job as the march was incident free.

We want at this juncture to say thumbs to Zimbabweans, especially Harare residents who went about their usual business despite the march which was meant to shut down the capital. Government and the ruling party Zanu-PF continue to engage with the various business delegations visiting the country as part of efforts to attract Foreign Direct Investment at a time when the opposition is preoccupied with putting spanners in the works ahead of the elections.

We have said the holding of elections in a peaceful environment should be a joint effort by all political parties but MDC Alliance seems to relish violence and chaos because it has realised that it is staring defeat in the harmonised elections. We want to once again urge Government and the ruling part to guard against falling into the MDC Alliance’s trap. Members of the opposition and their leaders are deliberately provoking security agents and the ruling party members so that they react.