Chamisa to lead protest from front

MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa has said he will today lead the protest march against Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec)'s alleged bias towards Zanu-PF ahead of this month's crunch polls.

Chamisa said the electoral management body was losing credibility daily, as it continued to bungle in the printing of ballot papers.

"Zanu-PF has never complained, not even once. Which team have you seen that plays a game without complaining, not even once to an impartial referee? It's therefore clear that they are not players in this game and that the referee has picked a side," he said ahead of today's demonstration.

The MDC Alliance said it would not allow the elections to be held before reaching consensus on the printing of the ballot papers.

Chamisa said he would also demand from Zec chairperson Justice Priscilla Chigumba to explain how Zanu-PF managed to get hold of the database under its control.

This comes as more opposition parties and independent candidates raised the stakes, passing a vote of no-confidence in Zec.

In a joint statement yesterday, the MDC Alliance, Joice Mujuru's People's Rainbow Coalition, Elton Mangoma's Coalition of Democrats, the Alliance for People's Agenda (Nkosana Moyo), Build Zimbabwe and MDC-T led by Thokozani Khupe agreed Justice Chigumba's team had failed its mandate and had lost public trust for a free and fair election.

"Zec has refused to avail the biometric voters' roll as required by law. It has, so far, distributed an incredible electronic voters' roll with astonishing manipulations and irregularities that range from same identity cards on different faces, same identity cards for different people, many people on addresses that don't exist, too many people on one address, too old people that can't still be alive, candidates nominated, but not appearing on voters' roll," the parties said.

According to the parties, Zec seems to have been distributing "many different rolls" for this election.

"No one can be sure what version will be used on voting day. One version had a duly nominated candidate missing. The candidate was given another version in which their name now appeared," the parties said.

But Zanu-PF deputy secretary for legal affairs Paul Mangwana said: "We are on the ground addressing people who will vote. Only the MDC believes that an ‘X' can magically move from one place to the other, we don't win elections by magic."

Meanwhile, the MDC Alliance threatened to picket at State House.

Addressing scores of opposition supporters in Highfield West, where youth assembly leader Happymore Chidziva is MDC Alliance parliamentary candidate, MDC-T organising secretary Amos Chibaya said there was no turning back on their demands.

"Tomorrow (today), if [President Emmerson] Mnangagwa and Chigumba don't want to give us a clean election, we will go straight to the State House," Chibaya warned.

MDC-T deputy president Elias Mudzuri, who was standing in for Chamisa, threatened that they would embark on a march similar to the one which preceded the fall of former President Robert Mugabe last November.

"On November 18, we joined forces with soldiers after we were asked by war veterans to remove Mugabe. Now we are saying Mnangagwa and Zanu-PF must go. Our demonstration is just a highlight that we are not going to allow these people to steal elections," he said.