HARARE – Citizens Coalition for Change has accused the Zanu PF led government of attempts to weaken it through visiting forms of violence on its structures coupled with targeted legal attacks on party and civic leaders viewed a threat to the ruling party’s stranglehold on power.
Speaking at a media briefing in Harare on Tuesday, CCC deputy national spokesperson Ostallos Siziba said the systematic onslaught was an unconstitutional attempt to give Zanu PF the competitive advantage ahead of the country’s elections next year.
“The major worrying trend that CCC is worried about is the surging of politically motivated violence in different parts of the country which has a huge bearing in terms of the outcome of the 2023 elections,” Siziba said.
“Members of CCC have not been spared from this selective application of the law; literally all the members of the CCC movement in the top echelons have been in and out of court for different concocted charges.
“We have also been worried by the attempts to close democratic space by the continuation of the Patriotic Bill whose intention is to criminalise, capture, monitor and direct the functions of civic societies.”
The Nelson Chamisa led opposition said government’s continued reluctance to implement electoral reforms recommended by local, regional and international observers in previous polls has resulted in voter apathy with citizens continuing to lose faith in the country’s electoral system.
Political observers argue that bureaucratic bottlenecks, particularly those related to lack of identification, are driving the country’s young voting population away from polling booths.
This is evidenced by that since the disputed 2018 elections, at least 109,269 new voters have registered.
Urban areas, which have traditionally been the opposition’s stronghold, have seen a disproportionately low voter registration turnout.
ZEC recently announced that the voters’ roll would be open for inspection at polling stations across the country from July 17 to 26.
Speaking at the same event Tuesday, CCC deputy secretary for elections Ellen Shiriyedenga said her party was set to step up its voter mobilisation efforts to counter the alleged machinations of the Zanu PF government.
“As a party, we are obviously going to intensify our online and localised physical voter registration mobilisation efforts,” she said.
“Now that the updated voters roll is out, we will endeavour to apply a more scientific approach to mobilisation, study the voter registration trends and target the most hard hit areas; moreso, research on other factors causing under registrations.”
Shiriyedenga cited the recent appointment into the ZEC Commission, of Abigail Millicent Mohadi-Ambrose – daughter to former State Vice President and current Zanu PF VP – as partisan and potentially prejudicial to the interests of Zanu PF opponents.
“Our constitution is very clear on the appointment of commissioners that they should be independent and not subject to the direction and control of anyone.
“If you look at the appointment of the commissioners itself, there is a partisan approach; as a result that affects the whole independence of the institution of which, as CCC, we have always lamented on.
“We intended to engage the international community, regional bodies and all other stakeholders out there also taking into account that we have recommendations that were made by election observer missions in 2018 particularly with the respect of the independence of ZEC.
“So, this is one area you will note there hasn’t been any political willingness to implement those recommendations, most definitely will take it up with international and regional communities.
“This is also one area we intend to see how best it can be addressed locally.”
