Sibanda made the remarks at a Press conference in Bulawayo
held under the theme: The Voices of the Ordinary People of Zimbabwe ahead of
the 2023 elections.
He said since independence, Zimbabwe has witnessed conflict
during the pre-electoral periods when parties campaign, and when election
results are announced.
During the 2018 elections, six unarmed civilians were
gunned down by soldiers in Harare after the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission
delayed announcing presidential election results.
“Our history is that, each time we have an election, there
is political violence. Whatever projects political parties who win elections do
are for purposes of electioneering. There is a lot of political polarisation in
our communities. The current winner takes all system being used in the country
is a recipe for conflict. The political party that wins the elections grabs the
whole cake and this instigates continued electioneering in the country throughout
the whole five year term,” Sibanda said.
“We are going into the election when the electoral reforms
which we have been clamouring for as civic society have not happened. We are
going into elections with the same electoral systems that were there in 2013,
which resulted in disputed elections, followed by a global political agreement.
The electoral system does not create inclusivity,” he said.
Sibanda said he had hoped that after Operation Restore
Legacy in 2017, there would be a transition period to begin to redefine the
nation of Zimbabwe and to re-build it.
“However, what has happened is that some colleagues have
grabbed the whole pot and ran away with it to the mountains. We need to
de-polarise the country. The country is
now going into elections without solving the August 1, 2018 killings of
civilians, which resulted in the formation of the Kgalema Motlanthe Commission,
which made recommendations that are yet to be implemented. Even the ruling
party is also faced with intra-party violence as witnessed in their just ended
elections,” he said.
Sibanda said the forthcoming elections might trigger a
“soft war”, and called upon political parties to dialogue and promote peace.
“We need dialogue to agree on alternative ways of
transition of power without shedding blood,” he said, adding that it would be
better to postpone the elections than to hold violent polls.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa is yet to proclaim the exact
election dates. Newsday
0 comments:
Post a Comment