Harare — Once again, barely a month before the crucial harmonised elections, the MDC and their Western allies have basically thrown in the towel and have resorted to bully tactics instead of campaigning, at least judging by the comments made by its spokesperson Nelson Chamisa.

For the second time in as many weeks, Chamisa was quoted in the Press threatening to use undemocratic means in attempts to unseat the Government in the event that his faction lost the forthcoming elections.

Chamisa said his party had a strategy in place to "incapacitate" the Government in the event of the inevitable defeat due to circumstances that have nothing to do with freeness and fairness of the elections. "We have a plan in place. The MDC will use a tried and yet untested strategy to incapacitate Mugabe. This time the courts are out of question . . ."

Only last month, Chamisa was quoted threatening Kenya-style mayhem in the event of an MDC defeat. "You saw and heard what happened in Kenya. It's nothing compared to what we will have here if (President) Mugabe rigs the elections again," Chamisa was quoted as saying.

Pausing for a moment, we have to ask ourselves what good has come out of the Kenyan fiasco other than the wanton destruction of property and loss of human life. Quite honestly, I shudder when the spokesperson of the main opposition party continues to suggest that the same will happen here in a seemingly welcome tone.

Commenting on the issue, Zimbabwe Independent deputy editor Joram Nyathi rightly pointed out that such threats amount to intimidation of the electorate. Isn't this the same allegation that the opposition is levelling against the Government?

"Inducing the people to vote in a certain way for fear of violence should the election result be disputed amounts to democracy by fear," wrote Nyathi. The MDC is again proving it has nothing to offer by focusing on threats, which it has no capacity of fulfilling, instead of focusing on campaigning for a better showing in the elections. MDC leaders seem hell-bent on the post-election scenario instead of working to win votes. Is this an early admission of defeat? I wonder.

Victory in elections depends on how your policies are received by the electorate rather than how many impotent threats you spew. If threats could win elections, Morgan Tsvangirai would be in power right now. The late MDC national chairman Isaac Matongo once warned MDC leaders in early 2007 that the party was in danger of losing future elections "less because of electoral fraud than the fact that grassroots support was withering away" and the fact that the party has never been a factor in rural areas outside Matabeleland.

MDC leaders are clearly-stretching their luck by demonstrating once more their apparent talent for incompetence and penchant for violence as an alternative to the well-established democratic tenets of getting into power.

One only needs to look at the violent scenes that characterised the launch of the party's campaign in Mutare to realise how deep-rooted violence is in the MDC psyche. Probably, lingering on the back of Chamisa's mind when he made the statement was the ill-fated so-called Democratic Resistance Committees that his faction created to unleash violence during and after March 11 last year. The DRCs only managed to have an initially damaging impact but were later ruthlessly crushed by the law enforcement agents. How Chamisa believes the DRCs could become more effective now is a mystery. After all, some of the leaders of the DRC, like one Nhamo Musekiwa, have since passed on.

However, the Kenya scenario instead of being an inspiration to Chamisa to unleash violence, should have taught him and his party about the unforgiving nature of violence. The Kenyan debacle has proved that neither party nor individual enjoys a monopoly of violence. Riotous behaviour, by its nature, is difficult to control and no one can determine its outcome.

For all we know, Chamisa or those close to him could become the first victim(s) of the very "means" that he promised his party would follow in the event of defeat. The fate that befell Kenyan opposition parliamentarians could have been avoided had their party not chosen to incite the lumpen elements in Kibera slum.

One sees a not so hidden a hand in the utterances by MDC leaders in the build-up to the elections. Was it by coincidence that the party's handlers, namely the United States, United Kingdom and the European Union, have issued statements predicting post-election violence despite the largely quiet and serene environment currently prevailing in the country?

The US embassy in Harare, for instance, issued a travel warning to its citizens recently warning of violence in Zimbabwe. "The 2008 election season has the potential to generate widespread instability and violence," read the statement released by the US State Department. What is it the Americans know that the rest of us do not unless they are sponsors of the violence or it's an admission that their surrogate party is not going to win hence the need to instigate violence? Or should we assume that we now have American clairvoyants in our midst?

Not to be outdone, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown recently revealed that his government had released £3,3 million for the illegal regime change agenda in Zimbabwe. The EU also chipped in with a well-timed renewal of sanctions against Zimbabwe. A colleague of mine told me that the Australians, so eager to be seen as the chief handlers of Tsvangirai, had to send the whole embassy, the ambassador included, to the launch of the Tsvangirai manifesto.

Analysed collectively, is this not tantamount to intimidation of the electorate?

Threatening that if the electorate does not vote in a particular way the election will not be free and fair is plain voter intimidation and rigging.

Does this not fall within the unexplained "strategy" of the MDC as said by Chamisa?

Instead of galvanising their support base, Tsvangirai and his gang think victory will be bestowed on them even if they do not work for it. Like in the past, they are going to find themselves out in the cold come March 29. Maybe their "strategy" is to ship out and follow their wives and children in the Diaspora. As for Chamisa, well-placed sources have told me that he is trying to entrap his fellows.

He has already predicted the forthcoming humiliation and is rumoured to be actively pursuing post-graduate studies overseas. With an air ticket in hand, the young man is entitled to say whatever he wants.