A NEW political movement calling itself Ideal Zimbabwe has criticised opposition parties for agreeing to participate in elections before measures are put in place to reform the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec), which is largely perceived as biased because of the composition of its secretariat.
by TINOTENDA MUNYUKWI
Ideal Zimbabwe president Tinashe Jonas said as a political force, they had launched a campaign dubbed “#Vote no 2 elections,” to lobby for the complete overhaul of Zec and elimination of political intimidation which had seen some of the country’s citizens vote for certain political parties out of fear.
“There cannot be elections in 2018. The whole election template in Zimbabwe needs to be dismantled because when people vote, they are voting especially for Zanu PF out of fear of victimisation.
“It is ill-advised to go into an election with Zanu PF like what opposition parties have done before and are still willing to do when we clearly know that the body overseeing the election (Zec) is headed by a former Zanu PF MP, Rita Makarau (pictured). We do not know how many more people in Zec that are Zanu PF,” he said.
The campaign comes on the backdrop of a similar driver organised last week by a pro-democracy pressure group, #Tajamuka, which described Zec as incapacitated to administer a fair and credible election.
“We are not only looking at Zec, because President Robert Mugabe has taken over the police and the army, therefore what credible election can there ever be if Constantine Chiwenga (Zimbabwe Defence Forces Commander) and Augustine Chihuri (Police Commissioner-General) are both publicly Zanu PF?” Jonas questioned.
“We are saying to every young Zimbabwean out there let us work together and campaign against this old generation that is running the country.”
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Established in South Africa, Ideal Zimbabwe is one of the many socio-political campaigns aiming to exert pressure on Mugabe’s government that many blame for throwing the country into economic crisis.
