Western countries? machinations to discredit next Wednesday?s elections were to be expected given that their preferred political party, the MDC-T, is facing defeat. Efforts to bring the harmonised elections into disrepute intensified this week?on Monday?when various United States think tanks convened a conference organised by the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington DC to discuss the impending polls.
The NED, which is a key medium of US regime change funds to local groups that are anti-Zimbabwe, discussed the MDC-T?s misplaced wishes for so-called media and security sector reforms and was expected to condemn the elections.
In Britain, the Daily Mail was making sensational and hogwash claims that President Mugabe and Zanu-PF were plotting to rig the harmonised elections.
MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai has also been making unsubstantiated claims that the presidential, parliamentary and council elections will be rigged.
This is all ground preparation to challenge the results of the elections when the MDC-T is defeated.
We have been through the same and we now know the tactics of the Western powers and their allies in Zimbabwe, the MDC-T.
But their hallucinations will not find takers because we cannot have the West certifying elections in Africa to be free and fair only when their parties of choice win.
In Zimbabwe, the West?s comments and assessments of the elections are already tainted by the fact that the US and Britain are interfering in the internal affairs of the country.
They have imposed economic sanctions to make our economy scream so that people turn against Zanu-PF and vote the MDC-T into power.
Therefore such countries cannot be expected to declare that our elections and the preparations leading to the polls are credible.
But the good thing is that the progressive world no longer takes British, the US and the European Union opinions on Zimbabwe for what they are.
This is because the progressive world now knows that those opinions are blatantly biased in favour of the MDC-T, Mr Tsvangirai and other opposition forces.
Voices of reason such as the African Union have expressed their happiness on the progress Zimbabwe has so far made in preparation for next week?s elections.
Although the AU Commission chairperson Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was expected to give a detailed assessment yesterday, she gave the clearest hint?on Wednesday?when she arrived that the observers were satisfied with the prevailing conditions.
AU Commissioner for Political Affairs Dr Aisha Abdullahi said assessments by the AU Observer Mission so far showed Zimbabwe was on course for a credible poll.
These are the opinions that matter because they are coming from observers who are objective and have open minds.
However, the actions by the British and the Americans are quite ironic when you consider that the European Union office in Harare has commended the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission for managing to deliver a special vote to 37 108 applicants despite the challenges the electoral body faced in administering the process.
The special vote is a crucial part of the elections in Zimbabwe because it affords members of the uniformed forces and election officials who will be on duty during normal voting and might be deployed outside their wards a chance to vote.
EU ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Aldo Dell?Aricia has commended ZEC for the manner it handled the special vote despite the obvious challenges.
We don?t know whether Mr Dell?Aricia is in touch with his colleagues in Britain, the rest of the EU and the US.
