Opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Douglas Mwonzora has withdrawn from this year’s presidential elections citing electoral mismanagement by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC).
Speaking to journalists at the party headquarters in Harare, Mwonzora highlighted the delimitation report and the disqualification of 87 MDC candidates from contesting this year’s elections.
“This is the first time in the history of this country that we have seen mass disenfranchising of this number of people. There is no doubt why the MDC is being treated in a different manner from other political parties. It is because the MDC took ZEC to court over delimitation. The delimitation that we fought against is now in force and its effects are now clear on this election. ZEC right now as we are speaking is busy changing boundaries for electoral constituencies. I think they have added more than a thousand more polling stations because the delimitation report was itself by nature invalid.
“Having seriously considered this and being a patriotic Zimbabwean, I love my country, I took part in the crafting of the Constitution of our land. I believe that the Constitution is not there for decoration. I believe that there is a minimum standard for integrity required in our electoral system and I believe that the mass disenfranchising of our people, the discrimination of one party in the country by the election management body is unacceptable. For that reason, in terms of Section 107 of the Electoral Act, I with the concurrence of my party have withdrawn my candidature from this election,” Mwonzora said
He added “We are boycotting this farce, this sham, we are boycotting this presidential election. We come to this conclusion after serious consideration, after looking at our founding values, our aim as the MDC is to take over governmental power through peaceful democratic and constitutional means to govern differently and change the lives of Zimbabweans.”
Meanwhile, the MDC leader said the party had not sanctioned the withdrawal of the 24 candidates who are representing the party as Members of Parliament
