Self-imposed Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) interim secretary-general Sengezo Tshabangu says he is ready to tackle election rigging in the December 9 by-elections.
Tshabangu has recalled several CCC legislators and councillors triggering the by-elections although Nelson Chamisa, the opposition party president, is battling to block him through the courts.
Last week, Tshabangu recalled another 13 National Assembly members and five Senators as turmoil continues unabated in the opposition party.
However, High Court judge Justice Tawanda Chitapi barred the recall of MPs, Senators and councillors.
Tshabangu’s spokesperson Khaliphani Phugeni yesterday told Southern Eye that rigging started when the party rigged its own internal nomination process allowing Zanu PF to claim electoral victory in the August 23 harmonised elections.
“I am not sure about the talks by the Sadc team but the SG has said on numerous platforms that the rigging started when CCC rigged its own internal nomination process. This weakened the whole system and it gave Zanu PF an opportunity. Tshabangu has started addressing that so that going forward the party is ready to thwart any rigging that might happen,” he said.
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However, political analyst Effie Ncube said elections in Zimbabwe were unnecessary, adding that there was a need to deal with the provisions of the Constitution and international human rights issues.
“What we urgently need is anything that will assist the country to produce a dispensation that fully embraces in theory and in practice the provisions of the Constitution and international human rights instruments.
“We need a dispensation that will address the prevailing political and economic crisis that has led to debilitating poverty. This political and economic crisis cannot be addressed until we have addressed disputed electoral outcomes and transitioned away from authoritarian ways of governance,” he said.
Ncube said Zimbabwe needed deep reforms that would enable the country to hold free, fair and credible elections, enable peaceful transfer of power to the winners, and address international isolation.