CCC demands fresh poll

Grace Moyo

The Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) has demanded a rerun of the just ended discredited harmonised elections under supervision of regional and continental bodies.

Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) declared incumbent Emmerson Mnangagwa as winner in the presidential election with 52,6 percent of the vote ahead of fierce rival CCC’s Nelson Chamisa, who according to ZEC garnered 44% of the vote.

In the aftermath of the August 23 to 24 election Zimbabwe is in a political stalemate with CCC refusing to accept the result.

Addressing the media in Harare yesterday, CCC deputy spokesperson Ostallos Siziba who was duly elected MP for Tshabalala said only a fresh election will rescue Zimbabwe from its political troubles.

“The citizens Coalition for Change led by Advocate Nelson Chamisa has assessed the situation and has made the following clear and emphatic demands; to restore pure democracy and legitimacy in our country, we are not going to settle for less, other than a free, fair, credible and a proper election.”

“The solution lies in calling upon our African brothers to facilitate, to mediate, to scaffold and more importantly, to guarantee a process that will lead our return to legitimacy in the shortest period.

“This election that we are coming from, was a flawed process in its entirety for avoidance of doubt and the solution to put it very clearly is to have a fresh, free, fair and credible election,” said Siziba.

Several election observer missions disapproved of the electoral process which perpetuated an uneven playing field that disadvantaged CCC whose meetings were either banned or disrupted, members arrested and it least one member killed, and denied access to the voters roll and ballot paper among other irregularities.

The SADC observer mission preliminary report was probably the most scathing and resulted in angry reactions from Zanu PF officials. Other foreign observer missions also criticised the conduct of the election.

At the heart of the chaos was ZEC which has been accused of bias towards the ruling party and the opposition wants it disbanded.

“ZEC failed the credibility test, the transparency test and the professional test and therefore, ZEC failed its fidelity to the Zimbabwean constitution and ZEC must be disbanded, and a credible player, a professional player, scaffolded by regional and international players is the only way to have a free fair election.

“We said we need a fresh new and proper election in this country whose process is scaffolded by SADC, by African Union, by all other interested parties interested in the democracy of this country,” Siziba said.

Siziba could neither confirm nor deny whether the CCC would go the legal route which has often culminated in the courts giving judgments that favour the ruling party.

The 23 August poll was characterised by alleged command voting and intimidation in rural areas and voter suppression in opposition strongholds.

Zanu PF have dismissed claims of  rigged poll, with Mnangagwa telling his opponents that if they are not happy “they know where to go.”