JUST days before the watershed July 30 vote, it is bitterly disappointing that Zimbabweans are still trying to get the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to play a fair arbiter in an election on which so much depends.

Priscilla Chigumba, the chairperson of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), has shown herself to be a tool for Zanu PF and its candidate Emmerson Mnangagwa, a man bent on winning at whatever cost to put a veneer of legality to a military coup last November, to which he owes his new position.

Chigumba is part of a sinister plot, a red herring used to divert our attention from the schemes being executed by the military to rob people of their vote.

Those who have posited that Chigumba’s unfacilitative leadership of ZEC owes much of its erraticism to her sexual relationship with a married Zanu PF Cabinet minister Winston Chitando are totally justified. Chigumba has also not made any attempt, compared to her colleagues in similar positions in the region and beyond, to play a neutral role and build confidence in her office.

Her arrogance has disturbed many, sadly feeding into fears that she is there to serve the interests of only one party, Zanu PF.

Chigumba, by having an affair with a married man, one she was desperate never came out, has exposed herself to an unusual vulnerability that makes her a useful tool who will sing to the tune of those who appointed her without asking a question.

Any feminist or women’s rights activist worth their salt needs to assess this situation through fine lenses and see that even as we defend our own, Chigumba – through her actions or omissions – is not just destroying one family but the hopes and aspirations of a generation. She is not advancing the cause of women, but actually setting it back quite substantially.

By defending Chigumba’s right to have sex with whomsoever she wishes, at the same time denying a voice to those demanding transparency in the running of our elections, we are unwittingly endorsing the status quo. That is not smart. Neither is it smart to lower the bar on women’s leadership and accountability.

It is demonstrably foolhardy to assume that the incumbent Mnangagwa would appoint to this crucial position a man or woman of integrity, who is not compromised and is likely to take a principled stance and blow the whistle on the many hideous rigging activities taking place under the cover of darkness at ZEC. In short, Mnangagwa was not then and will not now appoint a man or woman who will reform him out of power.

Mnangagwa appointed Chigumba ZEC chair after the resignation of Rita Makarau under unclear circumstances in January. Many expected a period of reforms that would see us sail through an undisputed election, but this has not been the case. With less than a week to go before voting, we remain sceptical and troubled. The ‘New Dispensation’ has failed to deliver a credible election.

Mnangagwa wants the world to believe that former President Robert Mugabe is gone together with all the bad stuff to do with bad governance and stolen elections. But Mugabe lives on in Mnangagwa and Chigumba.

Justice Chigumba worked under Mnangagwa when he was Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, meaning he would be privy to her standing as a person of integrity or otherwise. Consequently, an affair with a senior member of his Cabinet would be known in the corridors of power and by the President himself and would be a factor to her appointment and what she does next in the execution of her duties.

Compromised Chigumba was set up to fail, that is fail the opposition. The fact that even after the public revelations of the sex scandal she has kept her job means she is of wicked value to someone.

Devious Varakashi, Mnangagwa’s paid army on Twitter and Facebook, are quick to shed crocodile tears in public defending Chigumba against alleged sexists in the opposition, when they are the ones who have set her up.

These men do not love Chigumba or any other woman, they are devious liars. Varakashi conveniently forget women who have suffered real brutalisation within and outside Zanu PF, women who are scarred, hurt and traumatised.

Margaret Dongo went through incredible abuse just because she questioned their ‘yes sir’ mentality in Parliament, rightly calling them ‘Mugabe’s wives.’ She suffered. She was harassed, lost property, set up against other Zanu PF women, who include the late Vivian Mwashita and Florence Chitauro. Recall how Joice Mujuru, a widow, was hounded out of the party? Not to mention the misogynistic obsession with Grace Mugabe, who still suffers the same abuse to date.

The same men are known bed hoppers, who without care spread HIV and even pick High School girls for wives. Hypocrites who have no right to lecture anyone on sexism just to avoid delivering free and fair elections.

The same men have presided over the worst episodes of violence against women. In that horrific unsolved crime, Gukurahundi, pregnant Ndebele women were bayoneted because they were carrying “dissidents”.

In elections in 2002 and 2008, dozens of cases of women being raped were well documented.

These fake latter-day male feminists have no right to question anyone who is genuinely concerned about the integrity of our elections, demanding accountability from Chigumba, who is now an obstacle to a free and fair election.

It is worth pointing out that Makarau had no known public sex-capades, but went though similar pressure as is Chigumba now to deliver free and fair elections.

If she has a moral compass at all, it would be pointing her at the exit door.