‘Zanu PF’s plans to rig elections in motion’

By Pindai Dube

BULAWAYO – Zanu PF’s plans to rig the forthcoming elections are already in motion, with a voters’ roll that is in shambles being the trump card, according to a spokesperson for Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC party.

Addressing journalists at the Bulawayo Press Club on voter secrecy in Zimbabwe, MDC deputy national spokesperson Tabitha Khumalo claimed there were more names of non-existent people appearing on the voters’ roll than those alive.

“They have rigged the elections already. If you check the voters’ roll today you will realise that there are more names of people not existing than those existing. Even in my constituency, Bulawayo East, there are strange people listed on our addresses. For example on my home address there are 11 people whom I don’t know. That is rubbish,” said Khumalo.

Khumalo said the MDC will push for the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) secretariat to be reshuffled before any elections are held. Both President Robert Mugabe and Tsvangirai agree on the need for elections.

But they differ on the timing, with Mugabe insisting polls should proceed this year under prevailing conditions. Tsvangirai says reforms such as a new constitution must be completed before an election is held.

“The Zec secretariat is full of Zanu PF activists, government spy agents and some army officers. So before any elections are held, it should be reshuffled,” said Khumalo. Speaking during the same occasion, Zapu national secretary for legal and special affairs Steven Nkiwane described registrar general Tobaiwa Mudede as an “incompetent liar and a Zanu PF activist” who should not be part and parcel of any electoral process in Zimbabwe.

“His office should be detached from conducting voter registration in Zimbabwe, and he is also a Zanu PF member,” said Nkiwane.

“When we met him last year in Kadoma during the constitutional outreach programme, he told us voter registration has begun countrywide. But that is a lie because right now if you visit any of his offices countrywide they will tell you that the voter registration process for next elections has not started,” said Nkiwane.

Zimbabwe’s elections have in the past been blighted by violence and charges of vote rigging, resulting in the European Union, United States and other Western countries slapping sanctions on Mugabe, senior members of his party, security commanders and business associates. Daily News