by Jasper Hloka

With four days left before Zimbabwe goes for the ballot, panic has hit the MDC Alliance camp, as attempts to foil the polls have hit a brick wall leaving them with only, but one option, to walk straight into the election.

Following weeks of threats to shut down Harare over allegedly unresolved electoral issues, MDC Alliance leader, Nelson Chamisa, was yesterday forced to swallow a humble pie and decided to give the impending elections a chance.

The decision to frog march into the polls follows the common observation by the Counsel of Elders led by Kofi ANNAN, and the Commonwealth’s Dramani Mahama, that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) cannot be stampeded to act outside the dictates of the law, a position the Commission has been trying to put across to Chamisa and cronies.

Mahama who is leading a 23 member Commonwealth delegation exonerated ZEC when he stressed that “no demand is unreasonable and I guess every political party will push the democratic space to ensure that their confidence level going into the election is good enough… but if it takes ZEC outside the armpit of the law, I don’t think it is something they can contain.”

The sentiments left Chamisa reconsidering his position and ultimately reneging on his threats through a press conference where he declared that they would rather participate than shy away from the polls. He revealed that “we can’t boycott our victory, we can’t boycott our mandate we have been given by the people. We can’t boycott because we are the winners of this election.”

With all avenues to scuttle the polls closed for Chamisa, Zimbabweans can be rest assured of a peaceful poll that would be carried out under the watchful eye of at least 71 000 Police officers and observers from all over the world who are deployed countrywide.