Chinamasa turns down Biti bid to seek elections funds

Government has dismissed a request by MDC-T to seek election funding from a Western funded non-governmental organisation, EISSA, insisting that the country has adequate money to run such critical internal processes.

Justice and Legal Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa said in an interview today that Finance Minister Tendai Biti who is also the MDC-T secretary general approached him last week seeking his support to write a joint letter to EISSA seeking election funding.

Minister Chinamasa said he dismissed the request with contempt as it comes just a few days before the elections.

He said critical processes such as elections should not be funded by foreigners as they would have an influence on them.

Minister Chinamasa described the request by MDC-T as a covert strategy to postpone the polls on the pretext of funding.

"Minister Biti came last week asking me to write a joint letter seeking funding from EISSA," he said.

"As you know EISSA is not the source of the money but it is merely the face of the countries that imposed sanctions on us.

"So clearly I rejected it with the contempt it deserves and I did not understand why at the eleventh hour he (Minister Biti) would make such a request especially given the fact that we know how donor money is raised and disbursed.

"Clearly there was no time to do it in one week or two. I read that to mean that he wanted a postponement of the elections."

Minister Chinamasa said Government had secured money to fund the elections and all systems were in place for the successful holding of the elections.

He said even the special voting was a success although it was marred by some challenges which he said were not related to financial issues.

"Where we are right now money has been found to run the elections," he said.

"The elections will be held on the 31st of July 2013 without fail. There is no problem about funding and thanks to Zanu-PF which has been able to maintain an independent line to maintain the sovereign status of our country.

"We cannot falter when we are just one week away as is being suggested by the MDC formations."

Minister Chinamasa said MDC-T should stop misleading the public that there was no money to run the elections yet it was busy campaigning ahead of the elections.

"Even Biti who is saying there is no money to hold the elections is campaigning very hard in his constituency and I would not think that he is so an insane person to campaign for an event that he is fully aware is not going to take place?"

"Why does he not sit back if he really believes that there is no money for the holding of the elections?

"He should have asked his party not to hold any rallies, just sit back and say there is not going to be any elections."

Minister Chinamasa said Government had since taken a position that it would not allow foreigners to fund critical processes such as elections.

He said such a move would have an effect on the outcome of the polls.

"We took a position long back that there should be no external funding of our elections," he said.

"These are very critical internal processes and to allow external funding would be to surrender control of our processes to outsiders. If you are being assisted externally, you should do a project document and justify for every cent that you use and even the assistance is given in drips."

He said it was regrettable that because of their Western parentage, the MDC formations always ran to their masters whenever they thought there was a financial challenge.

Minister Chinamasa said treasury was being abused by MDC-T to frustrate Government operations and other key processes in the country.

"The people who have seen their shortcomings are going to spit them out of Government on the 31st of July. So he is just a Minister of Finance for the next six days," he said.

MDC-T recently wanted Government to seek funding from UNDP. The request was dropped after the UNDP came up with a list of unattainable conditionalities.