by Elijah Chihota

Sensing electoral defeat at the hands of Zanu PF, the MDC Alliance has started to oil its violence machinery with a view to discrediting the outcome of the 30 July harmonised elections taking advantage of the presence of international observers.

During the MDC Alliance anti-Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) demonstration in Harare this week, one principal, Tendai Biti, who is also the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leader lashed out at the electoral body’s staff, threatening to go to their homes to wreak havoc and mete out violence against them for carrying out their constitutional mandate.

“We will come to your homes,” Biti shouted to ZEC officials at ZEC head office.

Biti escalated his threats on ZEC promising that there would be no voting on 30 July if the alliance’s demands were not addressed.

“We are now at that stage where we will define what we mean when we say there will be no election,” ranted Biti.

The PDP leader threatened anarchy in the country by unleashing violence in a similar fashion to what the opposition was saying after losing the 2013 harmonised elections. Stung by their dismal electoral loss, the opposition engaged in the infamous tongai tione politics of bitterness and sabotage.

“Those planning to steal the election must know that this country will be ungovernable. And that is a fact,” tweeted Biti threateningly.

In response to Biti, @dekeyaprecisely tweeted, “I believe and concur too, MDC Alliance fight is not a fight for democracy but power.”

With the violent nature of the MDC Alliance, this leaves the electoral body in a quandary as it fears for acts of arson following the bombing of Marimba and Harare Central Police Stations in 2007. In 2000, the then MDC, which is a predecessor of the MDC-T, once petrol-bombed the Chinhoyi Magistrates Court as it sought to destroy court records. With these kinds of threats, the nation is now gripped with fear that election materials might be destroyed.