I am hoping that lessons are drawn from Norton Constituency. I am sure they have been drawn because before that, the opposition MDC had claimed that their victory was a result of their support. However, they were proven wrong in this election. Equally for the ruling party, lessons must be leant that when you expel people without – [Laughter.] – real reasons, you also suffer immensely. The ruling party paid dearly for the factional fights and the opposition paid dearly for not telling people to register and to vote. I am sure now they will participate in every by-election so that they practice because you cannot win a final without being in a semi-final.
It is important that I also commend the people of Zimbabwe across the political divide for the elections of 2018, which I think spoke a lot about the young people who participated immensely in determining their future. It is not a secret that the young people of this country, because of unemployment and suffering decided to now exercise their right. The most important thing is for the leaders of this country to be cognisant of the fact that the numbers will grow if nothing is done to respond to the needs of the young people. All they want at the end of the day are jobs and a better life and whoever offers them that is the person that they will support.
It is important to also congratulate, first of all, Advocate Chamisa – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] – I congratulate him as a brother in that he participated in an election and did extremely well although he lost – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – It is important that I reiterate the fact that it is a first time ever in this country where a young person takes part in an election and garners so many votes. If I were him, I would use that as a foundation to start working towards 2023. I think it is important that he is commended for that and the MDC Alliance for coming in their numbers to be able to do that – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Hon. Members, can you listen to the Hon. Member.
HON. MLISWA: They must also be commended in that, they did well in penetrating the ZANU PF strongholds, which illustrates a free and fair election in that ZANU PF strongholds were never touched but the MDC Alliance managed to penetrate and get a lot of votes. I wish they had taken heed of what I said to them before, that you start this game earlier than late. I think all politicians must know that you need to work the moment that you are in office.
However, it is also important to commend ZANU PF for the urban votes that they got; I think in Harare Province, they got a lot of votes. The pre-election environment, whether you like it or not, was extremely peaceful, there is no way that you can take part in an election if the conditions are not conducive.
I think all parties are to blame for their failure because there were impositions, there were factional fights which I hope they can go back to the drawing board and all learn from that. I am talking about all parties across the board. If you look at the margins which were there, clearly, it was because they had put the wrong candidate, they imposed the wrong candidates and because of the factions in the MDC-T, they had the Thokozani Khupe issue which affected them. Again, ZANU PF had become a gamatox issue and had the G40 issue and so forth. I think I am the most qualified to talk about that because I am not in any of the political parties. So, I am sure it is important for Members of Parliament to also learn from me because I benefitted immensely from the faction fights of MDC and ZANU-PF. Like I said, I always await the primary elections when people are disgruntled and I cast my net and catch the biggest breams ever in town. They must continue fighting so that the independent candidates remain live.
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