One for the 23rd

It is yet another Friday. On a usual one, we get to have a reflective fact-based opinion on which to feast online.

As I write this, I am hoping and praying that I get to the end of the article. In the past 5 or so weeks that you haven’t seen a piece on this platform, I was not completely idle. I had, with the most passion longed to give you something to read but I could not manage to do so as I have been suffering from a serious episode of creative drought; writer’s block as others call it. What used to happen was that I would start a piece but before I could finish the first page of the two A4 pages prescribed by the Richie Online editorial team, my typing fingers would run out of juice and the articles would be abandoned.

A lot has been going on and if I had decided to take the current affairs commentary route like I have today, I probably wouldn’t have left this blog unattended for the past few weeks. There has been a whole lot of drama in all the three branches of government and political parties gave us a lot to comment on in the past few months. Then there is the coronavirus and the global fight against racism and maltreatment of people of color. Lately we have seen the return of football and an amplification in the usual noise that comes with the return of football. I, on a normal day wouldn’t be writing about any of that as I like to comment on and theorize on issues that apply to our daily lives as opposed to short lived hypes. As I mentioned, today I am going the route of commenting on comments on current affairs because of the coming important day that is the 23^rd June, 2020.

The past 13 months have been very interesting as different events unfolded following the May 2019 polls. We went to vote and for some reason most were not satisfied with the outcome of the election. We saw the two big opposition parties seek judicial intervention which resulted in the nullification of the elections in the famous February 3 judgement of the High Court sitting as the constitutional court. In the judgement, the court gave the electoral body 150 days to conduct another presidential election and that is what led the road to the oncoming elections day.

There were a lot of reactions with some unsuccessfully appealing against the judgement. Those are bygones and we will let them be that. Once the appeals were out of the way, everyone was geared for the elections which meant that the electoral body called for the candidates to submit nomination forms. The most significant changes we saw to last year’s lineup was the merger of a number of political parties to form the Tonse and the DPP/UDF alliances. Mbakuwaku Movement for Development remained independent and Ras Chikomeni Chirwa and Mr Smart Swira wasted our time yet again. You know the rest of what happened before the campaign began.

The campaign period was a rather interesting one considering that the campaign coincided with the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the country. Whereas we would have expected political leaders to play by their word of encouraging the masses to practice preventive measures, we saw all of them gather masses in the name of campaign rallies and before that presentation of nomination papers. Here were the interesting ones. The state veep was one of the first politician to make a hand washing video in the name of Covid-19 awareness was soon to get on a campaign trail gathering thousands and at a point was seen shaking hands. We could say the same about the Tonse torchbearer and His Excellency was no different. After not appearing publicly and failing to deliver his State of the Nation Address in person, the man was seen gathering thousands in campaign rallies.

Then there was the content of the speeches at the campaign rallies. On the most part, the speeches in the rallies of the two alliances that are being considered the contenders of the presidential elections left a lot to be desired as they were punctuated with endless sprees of mudslinging and tribalistic remarks. Over time, we also saw politically and tribally motivated violence being added to the already ugly campaign period. Perhaps it was so little a surprise and some of us have some sort of alarm fatigue to such.

With very few days to the polling date, there has been a lot of talk about the possible results of the elections. While some believe that it will be an easy victory for the Tonse Alliance, others believe that the DPP/UDF alliance will easily carry the day. Each side have their own reasons and I would like to think that the only way to find out is after the votes have been cast, counted and tallied. Other than the Mbakuwaku leader, no one is giving the said party a chance, and rightly so in my opinion.

There has been a lot of talk from different sections of the society on how we should vote, who we should vote for and what should motivate our choice of the country’s CEO for the next few years. In my circles, the loudest of arguments have been those who would like a change from the DPP government. Those have cited the stagnation in development, rampant corruption, nepotism and tribalism perpetrated by the DPP government. In their view, the DPP government must go at it is worse than the Covid-19 pandemic.

Those who are in the blue and yellow camp are touting for their president who has been very tolerant and democratic. They go on to point to infrastructure development in line with community colleges, improved road networks in urban and rural areas. On top of that, they hail the president as a true democrat who hasn’t engaged in political persecution even in extreme situations.

I have been wondering as to which voice has been loudest of the two to see if there is a way of predicting the outcome of the elections. All I have managed to do is to realize the obvious fact that the election will be tightly contested and that no one should grant themselves an outright victory. The nationwide massive patronage in Tonse Alliance rallies looks like a plus on their side but we cannot dismiss the power of incumbency and the numbers on the other alliance’s part. Then there is the issue of the people running the elections and possible tampering. You would have a headache if you tried to factor in all that when trying to compute possible outcomes of the election.

Ballot papers arrived in the country earlier today and I know that there are a lot of us who are looking forward to voting come June 23^rd. I will gladly go to exercise my constitutional right to choose the leaders who will govern this country and so should you. If you, by any chance did not register, this should be your lesson. Voting is not only a right, but also a duty and responsibility of each and every eligible citizen. I am praying for a peaceful election as you should be and I also pray that the best candidate wins. This country deserves leaders who have the affairs of the people at heart; leaders who actually care about the state of the nation. That being said, we should remember that leaders are just enablers and we remain the architects of our lives destinies.

Glad I got to the end of this article.

After a serious episode of writers block, ladies and gentlemen, Richie Online is back.