Tsvangirai to embark on door-to-door campaign

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said he will be forced to go door-to-door to make people register as voters ahead of elections set for later this year to ensure an MDC-T victory.

Addressing Sunningdale suburb, Harare, residents during a town hall meeting to update party supporters on the new draft constitution, Tsvangirai said he would not compromise to ensure everyone - including "aliens" previously denied the right to vote - is registered and warned his supporters against being complacent.

"When we get to the registration and inspection of voters' roll, I will not compromise. If it means coming to your houses, I will do that," Tsvangirai said.

"Some people say we are already leading, we are winners already. There is nothing like that until the final whistle.

"It's like a game of football. When you lead 5-0, the match is not over until it's over. You will be surprised when the opposite team equalises. You have to take your boyfriends and girlfriends to go and vote."

However, the MDC-T organising secretary Nelson Chamisa made an official complaint to Tsvangirai on the chaos characterising the voter registration exercise saying party cadres where being denied access.

The party youth assembly secretary-general Promise Mkwananzi made similar claims saying they had gathered that in Gokwe, Kuwadzana, Mt Pleasant, Hatcliffe and most parts of the country, known MDC-T activists and their families were being given excuses to block them from registering as voters.

"We are having complaints from our supporters that if you are known to be MDC, you cannot register. It's a serious problem and if you can, please take that to other leaders so that we come up with a solution," Chamisa said.

"We are extremely worried because we have received reports from different parts of the country on the same issue of selective registration. We insist that Zec (Zimbabwe Electoral Commission) must not be partisan and that's why we want the Zec secretariat to change.

"This will contaminate the credibility of the whole (electoral) process. In other countries, citizens are stakeholders in constituting a government. In this country they are seen as snakeholders who should never be entrusted in fashioning their destiny.

"The process is full of bottlenecks, frustrations and is happening nicodemously," Chamisa said.

During the same meeting, Tsvangirai told the gathering reasons why they should vote "Yes" saying it will justify why the draft constitution was "people driven".