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Don’t savour cheating even if it favours you to win the contest

Monday November 23 2020
Donald Trump.

Donald Trump, a man who has made it his philosophy to call anyone who has ever had the misfortune of not succeeding a sucker and a loser, has found himself sucking and losing big time. TASOS KATOPODIS | GETTY IMAGES | AFP

By JENERALI ULIMWENGU

If one were to do comparative electoral studies around the world today, one would immediately be confronted with the stark difference between what is happening in the US and what is happening in Uganda and Tanzania.

Of course we know that in the US the man who has made it his philosophy to call anyone who has ever had the misfortune of not succeeding a sucker and a loser has found himself sucking and losing big time.

Donald Trump must be running for Sucker-and-Loser-of-the-Decade because by his own admission he has lost to the worst candidate.

Yes, he has lost an election he should have won, and it is to ‘Sleepy Joe’ that he has lost it.

That is something that big, proud Trump cannot swallow, and so he is somewhere on a golf course licking his wounds, sulking and obstructing the handover that he cannot delay beyond January 20 next year whatever he thinks of being succeeded by ‘Sleepy Joe’.

I understand custom wants his toothbrushes and underpants out of that White House bathroom and bedroom before noon of that day, and by the end of the day the bill for his roast beef and broccoli will not be put on his account but on Joe Biden’s.

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The tenant will change irrevocably on that day, and Sulking Don can go and sulk all he wants in Mar a Largo or wherever else he chooses.

The American people will have gotten rid of an ogre half of them cannot believe they chose. Of course the other half does not seem to be able to think they could have chosen anyone with an extra ounce of common sense, and they are likely to stick with their man even if he tells them they should take up arms and prevent Biden from going into the Oval Office.

One thing we can be sure of as we watch Trump’s refusal to cooperate with the man he has to hand over power to is that he will be made to cooperate.

Whatever their shortcomings, and notwithstanding the ferocity of the tribal wars that we are witnessing, America is run by a system resilient enough to withstand the kicks and scratches of an overgrown baby who has lost his baby-sitter.

You look at the drama and you wonder what would have happened if it were happening in Africa. Africans have ways to make sure that we agree, even when we have not talked at all.

For instance, President Yoweri Museveni has agreed with everyone except those who disagree with him that Bobi Wine should be locked up.

Wine will make several trips to the cooler before he is allowed to vote, but you can put your smart money on his losing a few bones before he loses this election.

Wine must be getting used to this clobbering; the last time I was following his encounters with the ‘Chiboko’ people in Kampala, I read he had to be flown to the US to get some bones mended.

It may happen again this time.

To the south of Uganda, we know that the electoral processes in Tanzania are over and the ruling party had won ‘resoundingly’, although no one seems too sure how they won this one. As a self-respecting African country, we of course had our casualties of election-related deaths, some broken limbs and a few people have fled into exile.

The winners are not celebrating; I suspect because they themselves may not fully grasp how they got that ‘resounding victory’.

Sometimes in these matters, when machinations are employed to favour you and you ‘win’ the contest, it is most gratifying when you understand what you had to do for you to succeed, for that at least denotes effort on your part, even if it is cheating.

You do not savour cheating, even in your favour, if you yourself have been cheated out of an opportunity to cheat.

Now, what is left in Tanzania is for those who lost their bids to become legislators or councillors to troop to court and challenge the results, primarily by showing that the polling was not conducted properly, ballot boxes were stuffed, tallying compromised and numbers switched around.

If the people who look like they might have a case to present actually take legal action, it may take up to 2025, the time for the next ‘election’ before the current mess is sorted. And, all this is to do with only those who challenge parliamentary or local government votes.

Presidential results, once announced, it is Roma locuta, cause finita.

Is there anything anyone can learn from all this?

Ulimwengu is now on YouTube via jeneralionline tv. E-mail: [email protected]

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