By-election: Mwonzora blames everyone except himself

By-election: Mwonzora blames everyone except himself

Pretty Manyewe

Douglas Mwonzora is yet to come to terms with what happened in the March 26 by-election.

He still presents a bewildered face, a man unready to make peace with what befell him, as his party failed to win a single seat among the 28 that were on offer.

Mwonzora`s held a press conference earlier this week where he sought to address his loss.

He ended up giving a somewhat incoherent explanation where everyone except him was at fault.

He blame to ZEC and even the police claiming that the two bodies are corrupt and too powerful, before calling for electoral reforms

“The Election Management Body must act fairly and impartially. We will give a report in due course. There is need for electoral reforms. These reforms will come through dialogue. The police still has too much power and discretion. People in the diaspora must be allowed to vote. People in the opposition must forget their differences when dealing with the issue of electoral reforms,” said Mwonzora.

Mwonzora seems to have taken a page out of Nelson Chamisa’ s book by failing to acknowledge their inability to garner winning votes.

“We do not have the same state power as ZANU PF. We are going to push for dialogue because it has worked before. The fact that we have not done well in this election does not mean that we must abandon what is in the best interest of Zimbabweans. I am confident that we will come up with a formula that will give us victory. We will pursue dialogue with President Mnangagwa. If anything, this election fortified us and ZEC needs to be reformed,” said Mwonzora.

Forgetting that he only held two rallies at the same venue, Mwonzora appeared shocked with the low numbers at the polls.

“Voter apathy is a cause for concern for the opposition. The number of votes in areas which ZANU PF won is almost the same as those won by the opposition,” he said.

Mwonzora promised to implement ‘new’ methods to better their odds in the 2023 polls.

“Our performance was not good. We have looked at what went wrong and we are dealing with that. The MDC has the membership, drive, message and commitment to win elections. We have had a temporary set back and we will go back to the drawing board. It is too early to write our political epitaph. We are down but we are not out. We will recover and take all. We have enough political arrogance to come out of this. This is nothing,” he said.

Going back to his NERA rhetoric, Mwonzora continued calling for electoral reforms.

“These by-elections were some of the most apathetic in post-independence history. We wish to congratulate those that won and As the MDC Alliance, we respect the wishes of the electorate as expressed in these by-elections. What remains very clear to us is the need for serious electoral reforms in this country. We are going back to the drawing as we make serious preparations for 2023 elections,” he said.