THE belief by MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa that it is he and he alone who is supposed to be the the next President of Zimbabwe is likely to leave him a disappointed ambitious politician if his dream remains just that as facts on the ground seem to indicate.
For a start, the official results of the July 30 harmonised elections announced by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) saw Chamisa trailing at 44,3 percent of the total votes cast, to President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s 50,8 percent.
Chamisa has, however, disputed this, claiming that ZANU PF and ZEC connived to rig the elections in favour of President Mnangagwa.
That’s the basis of his petition to the Constitutional Court.
But from proceedings at the Constitutional Court on Wednesday, his lawyer failed to support his case with primary evidence, relying instead on less convincing secondary evidence.
And yet Chamisa had earlier boldly declared that any verdict not in his favour would be null and void.
In other words, to him, the Constitutional Court’s deliberations were largely academic.
It must be remembered that this is not the first time Chamisa has promised fireworks if any verdict, even at the polls, did not make him the country’s president.
For those who doubted the young man, a rude awakening awaited them on August 1.
MDC youths were unleashed on to the streets of Harare to cause mayhem when it became apparent Chamisa would lose the presidential poll.
This was what Chamisa had alluded to when he said he would spoil the party by figuratively ‘throwing sand into mealie-meal’ if he lost the election.
Chamisa then appears to be a man who feels that neither the law nor the people’s vote can stop him from becoming the country’s president.
We don’t need to go far to find out where the MDC Alliance leader seems to be getting his false hope from.
For it looks like NGOs, the US, certain sections of the press and social media have ganged up to systemically urge him on.
This they do by creating a picture of President Mnangagwa as a leader of a ‘rogue regime’ which does not respect human rights and has no right to govern.
This is all part of the regime change agenda.
Unsubstantiated reports, by NGOs, of post election retributive violence by ZANU PF have the net effect of encouraging Chamisa to keep on fighting the discredited Government.
It should not be surprising that the Counseling Services Unit (CSU) spearheaded the NGOs’ push in spreading false reports about post-election violence.
In the post 2008 elections, the same CSU spread a more alarming lie, where it claimed ZANU PF butchered 171 innocent souls and dumped the bodies in a number of dams.
Such kind of information, when spread internationally, gives impetus and false hope to regime change agents, both local and abroad.
In the case of Chamisa, he was further emboldened when the US renewed ZDERA (now ZDERAA) even after both local and international observers had deemed the recent elections credible.
What seemed to persuade the US was Chamisa’s earlier visit when he canvassed for the continuation of sanctions until ZANU PF was removed from power.
The independent press and social media are also playing a significant part in giving Chamisa the Dutch courage that makes him think, nothing can stop him from becoming president.
Perhaps, it might be more constructive for the foursome to advise Chamisa to shed his student activism mentality for him to mature into a politician of substance.