(HERALD ZW) Jomic reports expose MDC-T
August 10, 2013 Shingirai Huni Headlines, Top Stories No comments
Hebert Zharare Political Editor

MDC-T’S duplicity has been exposed by leaked Jomic Election Observer Mission reports that endorsed the harmonised elections as free, fair and credible with the party’s co-chairs feverishly working to ensure the report is not released into the public domain to abet their claim that the elections were farcical.

MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai has since filed an application at the Constitutional Court seeking to nullify the election results pursuant to having a rerun within the next two months.

However, 10 reports covering the country’s 10 provinces leaked to The Herald yesterday, confirmed that the elections were held in a flawless manner, a development that exposes for a sham the MDC-T’s refusal to accept the results that plunged the party to its worst defeat since its launch on September 11, 1999.

Although Zanu-PF had indicated that it was pulling out of Jomic alleging rampant abuse of the organisation’s assets by the MDC formations who were using them for partisan purposes, the Jomic secretariat working with the Zimbabwe Institute that acted as a conduit for donor funds proceeded to include Zanu-PF officials in the observer group.

The Jomic report exposes for a sham MDC-T’s pronouncements on the election results and flies in the face of the European Union, US, Britain and its dominion Australia that have been questioning the credibility of the harmonised elections..

The Anglo-Saxon alliance pumped an undisclosed amount of money into Jomic ahead of polls expecting a damning report from the body with an egg in the face, highly-placed sources disclosed yesterday.

Sources say some Jomic members (Mr Elton Mangoma MDC-T) and (Mrs Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga MDC), whose parties lost to President Mugabe and Zanu-PF, were refusing to convene a meeting to endorse the Jomic report and make it public.

By injecting millions into Jomic, the EU and Britain made it the largest single observer mission in the country.

Jomic was formed in 2008 in line with Section 22 of the Global Political Agreement and is composed of members of Zanu-PF and the MDC formations.

Some of its duties include ensuring the implementation of the agreement that died a natural death after the demise of the inclusive Government after the July 31 polls.

Zanu-PF Politburo member Professor Jonathan Moyo yesterday said although Zanu-PF had indicated that it was quitting Jomic, protesting abuse of resources among other reasons, donors still tried to use Jomic with the hope of getting a negative report.

“The donors were working with the Zimbabwe Institute led by (Mr) Isaac Maposa to mobilise money for the elections.

“The Zimbabwe Institute was a conduit for donor money and Jomic proceeded to observe the elections and ignored Zanu-PF’s pullout and assembled a team of 30 000 observers so that there were at least four observers at each polling station,” he said.

Each political party seconded 10 000 election agents to the 9 500 polling stations established by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission.
After realising that all credible observers to polls — among them Sadc, Comesa, the African Union, Chinese observer team — had endorsed the polls, Jomic then defied its Western funders and came up with a favourable report.

“Contrary to what the donors wanted, some underhand measures have been made to put the report under the carpet.

“Some of the key MDC-T people like (Mr) Mangoma who lost the elections (and Mrs Mushonga) did not meet to authorise the release of the report. They want it to die a natural death. These people were never interested with free and fair election at all,” said Prof Moyo.

Ambassador Christopher Mutsvangwa said the Jomic report was now immaterial after all organisations that mattered released their reports endorsing the elections.

“Jomic is a creation of Sadc and it (Sadc) has finished its work and produced its report and Jomic report is neither here nor there. So the deal is done.

“In this case, Sadc is supreme. Any other reports cannot be at variance with Sadc,” he said.

MDC-T spokesperson Mr Douglas Mwonzora yesterday Jomic was yet to release its report, adding if their representative, Mr Mangoma was refusing to authorise it, that meant he did not agree with its contents.

“It means (Mr) Mangoma does not agree with what is in the report. The fact that two thirds are not in agreement means there are serious disagreements. We trust Mangoma; he is an intelligent man, why should he sign a report whose contents he does not agree with? As a party we respect his judgment. What Mangoma tells us is what we do,” he said.

The other members of the MDC formation, Mrs Misihairabwi-Mushonga and spokesperson Mr Kurauone Chihwayi could not be reached for comment yesterday.