MDC spokesperson Jacob Mafume scoffed at the war veterans’
proposals to raise the presidential age limit, saying it showed how much Zanu
PF fears Chamisa in an electoral contest. He said although Zanu PF claims to
have a two-thirds parliamentary majority, such an amendment violates peoples’
political rights in the Bill of Rights and, therefore, requires a referendum.
“They are cowards, they fear Chamisa. Old men have
destroyed this country and if ever there should be an amendment, it should be
on an upper age limit,” Mafume said.
War veterans are plotting to force the ruling Zanu PF party
to make a constitutional amendment that will raise the age limit of
presidential aspirants from 40 to 52 years, which would effectively block
opposition leader Nelson Chamisa from contesting against President Emmerson
Mnangagwa in the 2023 general elections.
The MDC leader is 40; the age limit for aspirants allowed
in the Constitution while Zanu PF enjoys a two-thirds majority in the Ninth
Parliament after a landslide in the July 30 elections.
Addressing journalists in Harare yesterday, Zimbabwe
National Liberation War Veterans’ Association (ZNLWVA) secretary-general Victor
Matemadanda also called on Parliament to come hard on “people who call for
sanctions and economic sabotage and bar them from contesting in any election”.
Matemadanda said the war veterans will use the party’s
conference to be held in Esigodini next week to lobby Zanu PF to use its
majority in Parliament to enact the restrictive laws.
“The ZNLWVA condemns reactionary forces who go around the
world asking for the extension of sanctions and calls upon the conference to
ask Parliament to amend the age limit of those who can contest on the
presidential election from the age of 40 to 52,” he said.
Matemadanda, who is also War Veterans deputy minister,
however, did not explain how the former liberation war fighters reached at the
age of 52 as the threshold for maturity.
After the July 30 elections, when Chamisa was challenging
Mnangagwa’s electoral victory at the Constitutional Court, Buhera South
legislator Joseph Chinotimba (Zanu PF) suggested the ruling party would use its
two-thirds majority in Parliament to raise the presidential age limit to
between 55 and 60.
The move, although resisted by Zanu PF youths, was
targeting Chamisa, who narrowly lost out to the Zanu PF leader and still
contends that his “victory” was stolen by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission
(Zec), referring to Mnangagwa as an “illegitimate president”.
Mnangagwa won with 2 460 463 or 50,6% of votes compared to
Chamisa’s 2 147 436 or 44,3% of the votes, according to Zec. Newsday
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