Zimbabweans march for electoral reforms ahead of polls

By Jeffrey Moyo

HARARE (AA) - Over 5,000 people marched through capital Harare on Tuesday to hand over a petition to the Electoral Commission demanding electoral reforms ahead of polls slated for July 30.

Leader of the MDC Alliance, Nelson Chamisa, who is also the alliance’s presidential candidate, led the demonstration together with other alliance leaders amongst whom were representatives from the opposition National Patriotic Front (NPF) -- a political outfit made up of former members from a faction dubbed the Generation 40 of the Zimbabwe Africa National Union Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF).

The NPF is sympathetic to former President Robert Mugabe who was forced to resign following a military operation dubbed operation Restore Legacy last year in November.

NPF supporters donned t-shirts emblazoned with portraits of Mugabe and the late Zimbabwean Vice President, Joshua Nkomo.

The MDC Alliance is an electoral bloc formed between Zimbabwe’s seven opposition political parties last year in August.

Most of the member parties of the MDC Alliance are splinter groups from the original Movement for Democratic Change party that was once led by the late Morgan Tsvangirai who succumbed to colon cancer in February this year.

Chamisa replaced Tsvangirai as the MDC-T leader and subsequently now heads the MDC Alliance, which was also briefly led by his boss prior to his death.

Speaking after handing over a petition to demand electoral reforms, Chamisa vowed that as an alliance they were not going to enter the elections without the reforms being implemented by the government.

“We are not going to enter an election without reforms being implemented. We are saying let the ballot being used on 30 July be known; we want to know who prints the ballot papers; let the security features on the ballot papers be known by all; all of us should know the condition of the ballot papers,” Chamisa said.

“We are not going to have a repeat of the 2013 elections where President Tsvangirai won, but the election was rigged.”

Former Zanu-PF officials who have now joined the MDC Alliance also took turns to castigate Mnangagwa’s government for reneging on implementing electoral reforms ahead of elections next month.

“We can’t have Mnangagwa’s government denying us a level electoral playing field. We demand to have the electoral playing field levelled. As opposition, we want to be involved in the adjudication of the printing of ballots; Let it not remain a secret as to which company prints the ballot papers,” Kudakwashe Bhasikiti, who used to be in Mugabe’s government and now a member of the MDC Alliance, told Anadolu Agency.

Jealousy Mawarire, the NPF spokesperson, said: “We came to support the ushering in of President Chamisa into office as the leader of this country. We have a job of voting Chamisa into power on July 30.”

Tendai Biti, one of the MDC Alliance leaders, said: “Thank you Zimbabweans for issuing a statement that you no longer want rigged elections. There won’t be an election which is not free and fair. Right now we were dismantling the pillars of electoral authoritarianism.”

Last month, President Mnangagwa announced July 30 as the date for elections this year.

On Wednesday, the ruling Zanu-PF party will hold a counter mass demonstration against the MDC Alliance, ostensibly meant to cement support for the party’s leader, Emerson Mnangagwa at polls this year.