The Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) claims Zanu PF manipulated the nomination court process to make it administratively difficult for the opposition party to submit forms for its candidates.
This is after the opposition party failed to submit the
names of candidates for the 10 provincial council seats in Bulawayo.
Although some party members have blamed the party’s
leadership for centralising the nomination process, CCC asserts they had the
candidates list but were unable to submit it due to ZEC’s bureaucratic
procedures.
CCC deputy national spokesperson, Gift Ostallos Siziba,
said the party encountered bureaucratic obstacles that Zanu PF put in place to
make sure they delayed in submitting candidate forms.
“This happened in Bulawayo and in fact, across the country.
We had administrative challenges on the part of ZEC that affected our
deployment in the Nomination Court. This was also seen in Matabeleland North,
Matabeleland South, Mashonaland West and in Harare. There was a deliberate red
tape engineered by Zanu PF through its manipulation of the Commission to make
sure that administratively it becomes impossible,” he said in an interview with
CITE.
“Zanu PF is failing to deal with the authentic opposition
because their agenda has always been to destroy the existing opposition after
they have failed to capture it.”
According to Siziba, all their candidate lists were there
at the Nomination Courts before 4 pm, the deadline for new submissions.
“The case of Bulawayo in particular, was difficult because
the nomination court itself was small. The law says it must be an open court
but that was not an open court because the court was manned by the police. They
chose that particular court deliberately because they knew that not everyone
can fit,” he said.
“Any candidate who was in that queue was de facto and de
jure inside the court. If you’re in the queue, you are actually in court. They
were supposed to use a bigger court, but the intention was to stop us from
fielding our deployment in council and in Parliament.”
Siziba claimed that Zanu PF devised a plan B after
realising that CCC would not release their list of candidates before the
Nomination Court.
“We were conscious about this,” he said, noting CCC has
approached the Electoral Court to resolve the submission of their provincial
council list.
“The list was there but people were confusing political
debates about the names on the list and the availability of the list. All the
lists were contested across the country because naturally, when there is a
list, someone expects their name to be there and that’s politics.”
He highlighted that going to court was necessary because
CCC had to act within the purview of the law.
“What the court and ZEC decide to do is another thing, but
we have to exhaust those little remedies,” said Siziba.
The CCC deputy spokesperson denied claims its party
leadership was to blame for the nomination debacle as they managed the process
from Harare.
“Of course, logistical challenges can happen in an
organisation, but anyone in the movement knows and understands there’s nothing
that was happening in Harare. The only thing that happened in Harare was the
signing, which was a resolution by the movement to avoid double candidates,”
Siziba said.
“That’s why Zanu’s only option was to actually forge
signatures because it was not possible this time around for us to have double
candidates because we centralised the signing of papers. Those who suffer from
the mind of a rat think only one person was signing in the party.”
Siziba alleged Zanu PF ended up forging papers because it
was not possible to corrupt the system.
“Those who came into Parliament and council through the
back doors were used to meeting papers halfway and bribing people who were signing,”
he said also accusing ZEC of “smuggling forged signatures.”
“The same Commission that was able to thoroughly inspect
our signatures for CCC could not inspect the forged signatures in all the 29
wards of (Bulawayo) council. Those were not authentic signatures, but ZEC
managed to have those people showing beyond any doubt that ZEC was in
connivance.”
“That’s why we said if ZEC is not in connivance, it must
rectify that, which is why we’re in court. Those people will not have managed
to submit with the way ZEC was thorough with our papers. ZEC was supposed to
have been thorough with the papers that were signed by Mbuso and Javangwe”
The CCC deputy
spokesperson claimed had the party filed earlier, Zanu PF would have interfered
with their candidates and there would have been more chaos.
“Zanu was earmarking candidates in Harare, Gweru, Kadoma,
in Manicaland everywhere. The intention by Forever Associate Zimbabwe (FAZ) was
to approach all the candidates, and give them forged signatures earlier,” Siziba
said.
“If we released our list a week before, even two days
before, I can tell you without a doubt that there was going to be more mess
than what we are dealing with now.
Because we know what happens in Zanu PF that’s how we deal with our
politics, we act out of knowledge, important briefings and make strategic
decisions.” CITE
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