By Pearson Mbendera.
With two years to go before the nation goes to the polls to elect the people who will lead us to what we expect will be a better Zimbabwe, it seems as if there is high need for education on voting, its implications on the future, on what is expected of both the elected and the electorate.
Zimbabwean elections have garnered a lot of publicity over the years. But while a lot of attention has been drawn on the voting processes, the legitimacy of the election results amid many reports of vote rigging and of course violence, less has been said on whether the people are well educated on matters to do with the elections, their votes and the rights of what the people can and are supposed to demand from those they would have elected.
Zimbabwe boasts of a lot of educated people, but we have made a lot of decisions that have questioned our education, especially when it comes to our voting.
We have become so partisan to the point that it has affected the way we think, putting blinkers on ourselves, hindering our ability to make good choices. But in a country where there is a lot of power vested in the office of the presidency, someone has to wonder if the elected members of assembly have much to contribute in the affairs of the country. And in that regard, a lot of the members of assembly have taken their constituencies for granted, for the obvious fact that, living in a country like ours, plagued with serious economic challenges, people are more concerned with bickering about who is the problem than focusing on the small things that could be done, while we figure out solutions of the much bigger problems we face.
As someone who first voted in 2013, I was intrigued by that. It was a powerful experience, one that I had been waiting for for a very long period of time. It made me believe I had a say in my future, but really that wasn’t the case, the right to go into the voter booth and choose who I wanted to represent my interest didn’t quite live up to the hype of all the expectations I had.
The choice, since 1999 seemed to be between ZANU PF and MDC, the one led by Tsvangirai and in a lot of ways, that has made people concentrate more on the presidential elections and less on the constituency level or ward level elections.
I have never seen the elected MP of my area, in fact he only campaigned once, when the leader of his party Tsvangirai came into our area, otherwise his campaign was limited to the number of posters his crew planted on walls, traffic lights, trees and every other imaginable place when they could stick them. But coming from one of the MDC stronghold, his election into office was guaranteed.
How can we even complain to him? He didn’t promise us anything, he just posted his face and name on a piece of paper, and we gave him our vote. Is he even liable to us?
Many have dismissed this casual approach especially from the opposition of having no grassroots level participation as something trivial in a country where the bigger question is on the presidency than the members of parliament. But from those parliamentarians, voted wrongly into power will come out the ministers and deputy ministers to assist the President in the governing of the state, how are we not even looking at the bigger picture here?
And if we cannot trust you with a simple parliament constituency, how are we supposed to trust you with the entire nation. And this isn’t just a jibe at a single political party. Most, if not all of our elected officials have failed this country. Equally so are the people who elected them. We all have played a part in this, either in being the wrong candidates, or choosing the wrong candidate.
Of impotence is the question of why a person votes the way he or she does. But equally so is need for the one seeking election to actually earn that vote, and to say, “I deserve it because…” otherwise, all the election will do is fill out a vacant seat, and enrich the incumbent, while the constituency cries foul.
Sometimes when you watch the parliamentary session on TV, you wonder if the people meant to represent us know what they are supposed to be doing as there is less representing the people and more bickering and sleeping in the house of assembly. Its like watching kids in a playhouse fighting for limited playing items, while some hide in the corner as if they don’t want to be bothered.
But that’s the problem with democracy at times, the majority way, is not always the right way. And sometimes voting is like a multiple choice question, when all the provided answers are the wrong answers. Which ever one you choose, won’t help you in any way.
There is a massive case of information asymmetry between the representatives and the members of the public, yet we are supposed to make our choice based on the little they give us. Granted the public cannot handle all of the intricacies intricacies involved in the running of the affairs of a nation, but they aren’t too stupid either to actually be completely sidelined from everything. A lot of representatives, represent the people they don’t know. The only thing common with their constituency is the unfamiliarity they have with one another.
And its not just a case of the voting here in Africa. I followed the BREXIT vote in the UK and got to understand a lot about how people vote. Less people vote because they have an understanding of the issues they are voting for or against, but because they just took one or two things from the many issues raised. And yet at the end, most cry foul like really, is that even necessary now?
With America going to the polls next month to choose their next president they too face the challenges we fave here, just not at the same scale. Maybe they don’t have it as bad as we do, with live debates and a lot of campaign coverage to help people make a decision, there is hope for them making the right decision than what we have here.
Take a look at some of the issues we have to vote for, like the referendum on the constitution. How many people actually read the document before they voted yes to it. And with all the political parties having approved of that same constitution, it comes as a surprise now that the opposition is going against some of the details outlined in the document. Who are you fooling, why didn’t you bring up those concerns before you asked people to vote for it?
If the electorate are well educated on what their vote means, maybe that would force the candidates to we have been taken for granted and we sem not to care, we don’t ask the right questions, maybe because we just want things to go bad.
Of late, there has been some serious problems that have surrounded voting, with some serious apathy issues especially in the urban areas. now some people believe voting won’t change a thing, well, whether that’s the case or not, not voting definitely won’t change anything.
We here about issues on election reforms and that has spawned a demo or two, but the vagueness of it all is just too appalling. Why do we even have to vote, sometimes I wonder. Is it really hard to read a little, get to know more, about the people we elected in power, their track record, what they promise to do and everything that we might need to make a good decision. If we, as members of the electorate have no standards, how are our elected officials expected to have some? We will end up attracting good for nothing individuals, whose ability to lie convincingly to our faces will be their only expertise.
Its about time we start asking serious questions to the people seeking to lead us. Its not enough telling us what they intend to do for us, we need to know the how part. Don’t just tell us you will create jobs, tell us how. anyway can talk the talk, we need people who can walk the walk, Zimbabwe has been under performing for too long for us to have it any other way. So think before you vote, and at the same time, think before you campaign, no more free riding.
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