Zanu-PF heroism ended in 1980 - Abednicho Bhebhe

The MDC-T Organisaing Secretary Abednicho Bhebhe has said Zanu PF heroism ended in 1980 with the attainment of independence.

He said since then and to date the party and its members have turned into heroes of economic destruction, heroes of opposition party massacres and persecution of opposition voices, heroes of false arrest, heroes of torture and abductions, heroes of poverty and inhuman treatment of ordinary Zimbabweans and above all heroes and masters of rigging elections.

"Just last week, disturbing reports said the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) will not compile a new voter's roll to replace the current one that is fraught with countless irregularities," he said. "It does not take a rocket scientist to understand that the current voters roll does not inspire confidence after being tempered with to manipulate/rig election results."

Bhebhe said a new voter's roll is not only necessary but is a must to give legitimacy to Zimbabwe's electoral system and to the electoral body, ZEC.

"The current voters roll is in shambles, invalid names have been added, but not reformed. There have been many cases of deceased people appearing on the voters roll, people being registered in wrong constituencies and wards or others simply failing to find their names on the polling day," said Bhebhe.

He said there are a lot of discrepancies between census data and registered voters across all age groups.

"An analysis by ZESN in 2013 showed that for instance there are approximately 831 482 people in the age group 40-49 years whereas the voters' roll reflects 1,250,989 registered voters in this age group," he said.

"Zesn noted that in the age group 80 years or more, the census data indicates that there is an estimated population of 155,653, but the registered voters of the same group are 343 187, some of whom are as old as 114 years old."

Bhebhe said this and other irregularities of the roll disqualify any notion of Zimbabwe ever holding a free and fair election.

"The current voters roll is a danger to the holding of any legitimate election and government should demonstrate its commitment to support the efficient administration of elections by among other things, supporting an enabling legislation for a new voters roll, aligning electoral laws to the new constitution," he said.