Muideen Olaniyi
26 June 2008
For pulling out of the country's presidential run-off election slated for Friday, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has shown that he is more interested in democracy than in achieving power at all costs, the Action Congress (AC) has said.
In a statement issued in Abuja by its national publicity secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed,AC said that there was no point holding elections or participating in them if the peoples' votes will not count.
"In the case of Zimbabwe , it is clear that the votes of the people will not count in the forthcoming run-off, going by the senseless, state-sponsored attacks on the opposition, the prevention of opposition rallies and the mad rhetoric of the aging dictator called President Robert Mugabe", AC pointed out.
According to the party, "having realised that he could be beaten hands down if the people are allowed to vote freely and if the elections are allowed to be free and fair, President Mugabe has chosen to clamp down on the opposition, using state security agencies and hoodlums masquerading as his party supporters."
"Under such an atmosphere, the opposition will only be endorsing Mugabe's anti-democratic credentials by participating in the run-off. The decision to pull out, therefore, is the best for the opposition in the circumstance," AC said.
The party hailed Tsvangirai as a courageous leader and true lover of democracy as well as of the ordinary people, saying his democratic credentials have been strengthened by his principled stand on the run-off.
AC further called on African leaders and the international community to move quickly to intervene in the worsening political situation in Zimbabwe , especially now that President Mugabe has jettisoned democracy and resorted to dictatorship just to cling to power at all costs, even when his 28-year tenure has merely succeeded in dragging his nation down.
The statement also said that Mugabe must not be allowed to benefit from the violence that he has unleashed on his own people, who are now going through unprecedented suffering precipitated by a massive economic downturn in what was once a bread basket for the entire region.
"The AU in particular must move quickly to rally the entire continent to stop the crisis in Zimbabwe before its consumes the nation," AC said.
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