Opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) has reaffirmed that it will come out victorious in next year’s general elections despite the odds being tilted against them due to lack of electoral reforms.
Speaking to journalists in Harare Thursday afternoon, CCC spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere said the March 26 By-elections were a dry run to test the Zimbabwe Electoral Commissions integrity and transparency.
“We are winning despite the odds and that doesn’t mean we are blind to the odds, the kind of margin of error that we have spoken about will make a huge difference come the harmonised elections. So the fact that we are winning the elections is not going to stop us from demanding electoral reforms, those electoral reforms are necessary.
“If anything the by-elections process for us the reason we are participating is because they are a dry run to see the efficacy, the readiness of ZEC to test whether they pass the integrity test, the constitutionality and transparency test. The dossier that we submitted indicates, they are failing on a number of fronts, citizens themselves would have gone to the polling stations in the by elections and find their names are not there.
“You will see a husband have their names are in the voters roll but their wives have been posted somewhere else and the presiding officers will say just go and check at the other polling stations that’s simply not acceptable which why we insist on a credible voters roll,” said Mahere.
CCC secretary for elections Councilor Ian Makone lamented the need for diaspora vote saying they cannot be taxed without being represented.
“The right to vote that includes the diaspora make no apologies, you cannot insist on taxing them because they are paying tax but without representation. The diaspora remittances are the second largest source of foreign currency of our country yet we keep them away,” said Makone.
The party has been demanding electoral reforms as a way of ensuring that ZEC complies with the constitutional imperative established in Section 155 of the Constitution that elections must be based on universal adult suffrage.
CCC has since submitted a dossier to ZEC highlighting issues they feel will affect the credibility of the 2023 elections.
