When you spend more than five years getting bashed from all sides with election campaign rhetoric it gets difficult to believe every word, which comes out a politician’s mouth. Politicians’ now use every occasion as an opportunity for electioneering. Forgive me for thinking the same on the recent announcement by our out-going Honorable Minister of Tourism who seized the occasion at the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) general assembly to show some love for Disneyland.

Just yesterday the President warned of a tit for tat with the West for imposing sanctions on Zimbabwe and today we wake up to hear promises of building Disneyland in Victoria Falls. This is just too comical. It’s hardly a month after the harmonized elections and urban dwellers are in a ‘fix’ as they have resorted to shallow wells as sources of water. Who would want to come to a cholera-ridden country? Neither would residents opt for a theme park over service delivery. As highlighted by the Minister yesterday, Mickey Mouse comes with a price tag of US$300 million and if this money can be put to service delivery before Mickey it will go a long way in fulfilling elections promises.

Feeling disillusioned and alienated and the sense of belonging to an entity called Zimbabwe is fast fading. We have now had three consecutive elections that don’t seem to be helping in resolving the problems the nation has been facing for the past decade. If nobody bothers to respect the outcome of an election why then continue investing in such kind of a democracy? Isn’t it elections are supposed to help us resolve the great questions of our day, so that once one side of the argument wins, we can let it guide our decisions until the people feel the need for a change in direction? Alluding to everything and pretending to be enjoying every bit that comes with the election aftermath is now normal coping strategy as we continue to do soul searching on the direction the country is heading. For how long we will hold on depends on the men with the reigns over the mighty forces of the land.

Fixing things, flipping channels for some entertainment and in-between visits to relatives made my long holiday worthwhile. I caught a breath of fresh air and had some time to get rid of the election hang over.  For past six days I tried to keep myself busy so that I can stay away from newspapers and news channels. Besides the election controversy in Zimbabwe, Egypt burning and the States chasing after Snowden seems like too much to consume in eight months. Summer is now unpredictable these days so I had to spend my time fixing my roof and painting doors, walls and even the gate. I ended up even trying my hand at fixing electrical appliances.

My neighbors were even amused when they saw me on the roof and one of them asked if everything was okay? Knowing where I work the old man living next door came to my place asking me if the new government has also rendered me jobless. This is one old man I sometimes chill with and discuss politics with though his only source of information is state news channels and to him independent news sources are imperialist mouthpieces bent on taking us back to the colonial era. He openly speaks of his allegiance to ZANU-PF and being a staunch supporter of President Robert Mugabe. Sometime back he said to me that NGOs should be banned because they are here to remove the government and cause chaos in the country. When the election results were announced he went on a drinking spree. He later shared his happiness saying the country is now back to the rightful owners and everything will be free starting from debt cancellation by the council. He even castigated Tsvangirai wasting taxpayer’s money by going to court to seek nullification of election results. I tried to remind him that he should just enjoy the remittances he is getting from his two sons working in South Africa and leave Tsvangirai alone. He seemed to foresee an increment in his pension along with pay increments for civil servants promised by the President in his speech during Heroes Day commemorations.

This was hell of a long political lecture taking place on a rooftop and to make it even worse we had to wait for electricity from ZESA so the we could continue to drill and punch some holes before I could escape from this election trap.

The assumption that ZANU-PF was idle in their plans gave MDC-T an early victory celebration before even the elections were done. Taking down a party, which has enjoyed power for 33 years, is no mean feat and half way through the journey MDC-T’s struggle train took some unnecessary stops. Many are still asking themselves questions on how the MDC-T lost the election when victory was written all over it. The election defeat of 2008 was painful for ZANU-PF but their wounds healed fast helped by the lifeline they received from the inclusive government. MDC-T was deceived into thinking that the revolutionary party was out of the game, and limping. Little did they know that hit and run guerilla tactics had been born? With almost every resource at its disposal ZANU-PF out maneuvered MDC-T in every way. Regional and continental institutions like SADC and the African Union gave MDC-T a false sense of hope, forgetting that they were going against the odds since nationalist and former liberation movements like ZANU-PF formed these institutions. The countless court cases and trips across Africa to mobilize support from regional leaders kept MDC-T busy and out of touch with the reality of what was happening on the ground.  It seems this election defeat gave former allies of MDC-T some ammunition to castigate Tsvangirai’s leadership especially when he dumped them during the constitution campaign. But credit should be given to Tsvangirai for giving his best under a hostile environment. Besides the party’s losing streak in the courts let’s hope August’s dusty wind will not erase Tsvangirai’s hopes of seeking redress through legal means.

My excitement of yesterday’s election experience faded fast after I started hearing rumors of early election celebrations in various places, especially where I live in Chitungwiza. The road to this year’s election hasn’t been an easy one, as sometimes tempers have boiled over both at higher levels to as low as an ordinary person walking on the streets. That is the reason we had so many people in the past five years getting charged under the insult law when anger made them show the middle finger to the occupants of high office. I remember when my political science lecturer shared his political views in class, it got so tense that one would think it was a rally only for him to cool it by telling us to take it as academic.

But as the destination to the five-year journey draws closer it is the anxiety that is killing most Zimbabweans and other concerned stakeholders at this moment. Even Zimbabwe’s own whistleblower Baba Jukwa is not dishing out some reliable information on the election results updates. My uncle at home got tired of telling me not to worry myself as no live feed by ZTV from the Command Center has started. Besides press statements from the AU and other electoral bodies, and civic organizations websites, which have become alternative sources of information have maintained a shocking silence on elections results.  I guess as law-abiding citizens they also took heed of the strong jail time warning given to Tsvangirai by the President for releasing results before Zimbabwe Electoral Commission does. Even in public transport, conversations on elections are done in a low tone as people try to avoid drawing unnecessary attention from the person sitting next to them.

Everybody is waiting anxiously.

On a day like today Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation’s television recorded a spike in television viewership ratings as concerned citizens wait to hear results of the nail-biting contest between Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Robert Mugabe.  I hope this time we won’t see interrupted transmission backed by sweating faces on TV for the next two months as the results trickle in.

Well it is just a few hours before Zimbabweans go and vote but would this be another protest vote to expose the ridiculousness and the insanity in the manner in which the electoral process has been conducted so far? Political parties contesting in this year’s election are yet to receive the final version of the voters’ roll. The delay in issuing a voters’ roll to political parties is a reminder of the 2008 scenario when the nation had to anxiously wait for more than six weeks to get final results. Responding to questions raised by Violet Gonda of 1st TV on why as a party the MDC is participating in an election full of irregularities Welshman Ncube highlighted that the only strategy available is to fight ZANU-PF from every arena of the struggle. This raises questions on whether this fight is about ZANU-PF or the whole system. But if the strategy of not walking away from a fight on the reasons that it’s an unfair fight works for MDC how then was it difficult for Professor Ncube to share his views with Zimbabwe on comments made by AU Chairperson on electoral process being satisfactory. To rubbish the question and say he is not an analyst contradicts with the irregularities MDC leader he been raising throughout the interview. As much as Welshman Ncube insists on not to being compared with Tsvangirai in condemning the AU chairperson’s statement doesn’t change the fact that he is still participating in the same election to protest the irregularities.