MDC-T breakaway faction leader Thokozani Khupe (pictured) has
expressed concerns over President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s decision to
proclaim July 30 as the election date, saying the date was too close and
did not factor in opposition parties’ electoral reform demands. She
was, however, ready to slug it out with other contestants in the
presidential race.
In a statement yesterday, the faction’ spokesperson, Linda
Masarira said Mnangagwa rushed to gazette the election date before
publication of the audited voters’ roll by the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission, casting aspersions over the credibility of the polls.
“Without a clean and audited voters’ roll, Zimbabweans should
simply forget about holding a free and fair elections that can pass the
test of legitimacy. There is an uneven election ground as the system is
still ignoring the abuse of women in politics due to the patriarchal
nature of Zimbabwean politics,” she said.
“It is worrisome that there is now a perpetual intervention and
inclusion of the military and security sector in national politics. In
our quest to have a fair electoral process there is need of an intensive
ballot audit and counting of votes soon after the election as delays
might create an atmosphere of unfairness.”
Masarira also raised concern over the continued presence of the military in the Zec secretariat.
“We are still challenging the composition of Zec
administration/secretariat which constitutes 15% of retired army
personnel. This crop of retired army personnel also forms the reserve
force of the army of Zimbabwe which poses a serious conflict of interest
especially now since we came out of a military managed coup,” she said.
Masarira accused Zec of seeking to confuse voters by introducing an
additional 1 500 polling stations when voter registration which was
polling station-based has already been completed.
“Won’t we find ourselves in a scenario where people will be
turned away en masse from their original polling stations? Could this be
a tactical way of removing someone from a voters’ roll? Is this not a
way of opening up secret polling stations that will be new and no one
knows their location?”
Masarira said they will not play into Zanu PF’s hands by boycotting polls.
“We are still in the same situation which necessitated the call
for reforms so having elections without reforms is a futile activity.
Boycotting elections is not an option as we will just be playing into
Zanu PF’s plans. Constitutionalism, institutional reform, electoral
reform and a diametric shift in the trajectory of governance will reign
and be the order of the day if we vote Khupe as the President of
Zimbabwe,” she said. Newsday
0 comments:
Post a Comment