'It's a waste of time to talk of elections without reforms' says Chamisa

THE Movement for Democratic Change formation led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai yesterday said Zanu PF was wasting its time pushing for elections before key electoral reforms were put in place.

"The election will be determined by processes and fundamental reforms. It's a waste of time to talk of elections without reforms. Without reforms, it's an empty discourse," MDC-T national organising secretary Nelson Chamisa said.

"The good thing is Sadc is superintending this whole process and we are a creature of a negotiated process and elections are supposed to be a process. Why should elections be a Zanu PF affair?"

Zanu PF has made it clear it will push for elections by the end of June, while the MDC-T says elections could be held as late as October.

Last week, Justice and Legal Affairs minister and Zanu PF non-constituency senator Patrick Chinamasa said he would not allow for elections to be held after June 29 this year.

Chamisa told NewsDay yesterday his party had also unearthed fresh evidence of a Zanu PF "plot" to rig the forthcoming harmonised elections.

The plot, he said, involved using Registrar-General Tobaiwa Mudede's office to bar suspected supporters of the two MDC formations from registering as voters.
Chamisa said his party had raised the matter with the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec).

The Welshman Ncube-led MDC formation also made the same allegations recently, saying some of its members were being frustrated from registering as voters.

Ncube also alleged that sometimes his supporters were being made to wait for up to four days to register, while suspected Zanu PF supporters, in organised groups, were smoothly registered.

"We are disturbed by reports we have received from across the whole country of problems being encountered by people who want to register and are suspected to be from the MDC," Chamisa said.

"It's a matter that has been brought up with high offices and our leader (Tsvangirai). We have also alerted the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission of the complaints coming from the people on the ground. It's a plot which is difficult to understand," he said.

Chamisa added that his party was still pushing for a clean-up of the Zec secretariat to get rid of what he termed Zanu PF and State security agents sympathetic to President Robert Mugabe.

This is despite recent statements by Tsvangirai that the Zec secretariat was clean.

In a separate interview yesterday, MDC spokesperson Kurauone Chihwayi said his party members had experienced similar difficulties when they went to register as voters at Makombe Building in Harare.

The building houses Mudede's offices.

"What we know is that preferential treatment is given to uniformed forces and Central Intelligence Organisation operatives and we understand they are being lectured and coerced to vote for Zanu PF. In the last week they were addressed in camps and told to remember the hand that feeds them. It's unfortunate and that won't help them to win because people know what they want. Zanu PF has run out of ideas and it's known," Chihwayi said.

"What we know is that at Makombe Building, some of our members only got registered after four days without explanation. Zanu PF people were registered fast and smoothly and this is clearly meant to frustrate our supporters."

Concerted efforts to reach Zanu PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo and Zec chairperson Justice Rita Makarau were fruitless yesterday. Mudede too could not be reached.

Recently, the Sadc Troika recommended urgent security sector reforms in Zimbabwe to enable the holding of free and fair elections.

Mugabe has, however, remained defiant, saying there will not be any security sector reforms.