THE Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) has hit back at Foreign Affairs acting minister Amon Murwira after he warned the opposition party against criticising the outcome of the August 23 and 24 elections.
Addressing African Union ambassadors affiliated to Zimbabwe in Harare on Monday, Murwira said government will not tolerate any actions aimed at disturbing the peace under the guise of “democratic political processes”.
The CCC and its leader Nelson Chamisa have refused to accept the August election results arguing that they were rigged in favour of incumbent President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
“We have always said that we will be the first ones to congratulate the winners if we lose in a free, fair and credible election. We are democrats and a law abiding organisation that respects constitutionalism and the rule of law. What we have rejected without equivocation is the perennial manipulation of electoral processes by Zanu PF,” CCC secretary for international relations Gladys Hlatshwayo said.
“It is common cause that the just-ended elections were fundamentally flawed and fell short of domestic, regional and international standards governing democratic elections.
“It is in this context that the remarks of the Acting Foreign Affairs minister are not just unfortunate, but embarrassing given the fact that African election observer missions were clear that the election fell short of domestic and regional standards.”
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Several election observer missions flagged the poll outcome as not credible, citing a number of irregularities.
Chamisa has been pinning his hope on the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) to organise an election re-run. However, the Sadc election observer mission issued its final report last week and did not call for fresh polls.