MAIN opposition MDC is up in arms with the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission (Zec) after its chief elections officer, Utoile
Silaigwana, recognised a new political party calling itself MDC Zimbabwe.
Party leader Nelson Chamisa, through the MDC acting
secretary-general Jameson Timba, is livid and has written to Zec, accusing them
of trying to sabotage their chances of winning elections by creating confusion
among the electorate.
“We have been made aware that some individuals purporting
to be members have written to you purporting to notify you of their existence
as MDC Zimbabwe headquartered in Gweru. We have also been made aware of a
letter purportedly coming from yourselves in response to their notification
wherein you have acknowledged and, indeed, accepted them as part of your
stakeholders,” the letter read.
Timba accused Silaigwana of acting in a manner that is not
consistent with his office and violating the constitutional provisions which
govern his conduct.
“Firstly, as a key stakeholder represented in Parliament
and known to you, we were not given an opportunity to express ourselves on the
validity of the claim by any of the said individuals. May we remind you that
you are a public officer in charge of a public institution and, as such, you
should conduct yourself within the bounds of the Constitution and, in
particular, the requirements of administrative justice,” Timba wrote.
The MDC wants Zec to withdraw its recognition of MDC
Zimbabwe on grounds that they are illegally using a patented party name and if
allowed to be used, can cause confusion.
“Our party logo and insignia including any variants are
registered patents. The said persons have no authority to use our name or have
any claim whatsoever. As such, we hold a firm view that the purported
registration is null and void and should be withdrawn. We, therefore, expect
you to notify the said individuals of our position and expect your offices to
act accordingly in terms of the law,” Timba wrote.
Silaigwana said while he had not read the letter from the
MDC, he was shocked by the MDC’s attack on Zec given that the electoral
management body had no powers to register political parties.
“We have had political parties with similar names in the
past and we still do now. We have Zanu PF, Zanu Ndonga, the MDC’s themselves
have had MDC, MDC-T, MDC-N, MDC-99, and we have no power to segregate political
parties or register them. All we can do is acknowledge their existence and add
them to our data base, so I don’t understand really where this is coming from,”
he said.
Zec said it could only intervene when a political party
uses a party symbol or logo that is prohibited by the Electoral Act, saying it
held no other powers apart from those prescribed.
The MDC accused Zec of conniving with the ruling Zanu PF to
confuse the voters by putting on the ballot paper similar names just to spoil
Chamisa’s party.
“If you look at the 2018 general elections, the MDC-T led
by Thokozani Khupe had close to 200 000 votes at parliamentary level, but at
presidential, they only had 49 000. This was because there was confusion over
party name and logo, allowing them to benefit from that, but at presidential,
that confusion was not there and you saw how she performed.
This is a calculated ploy,” Chamisa’s spokesperson
Nkululeko Sibanda, said.
Zimbabwe Elections Support Network has already proposed a
law which will see political parties being registered to ensure that voters are
not subjected to fly-by-night parties that just show up during elections. Newsday
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