Nomination Courts expose Zimbabwe's opposition parties

THE Nomination Courts that sat across the country on Wednesday have exposed sharp contrasts in the organisational capacities between the ruling ZANU-PF party and one of its opponents CCC ahead of elections in August.

A week before the Nomination Court, Zanu-PF rallied its candidates to submit nomination papers to the courts, giving them time to make sure that all their paperwork was in order.

While ZANU-PF started its process a week before, CCC waited until minutes before the court was due to close. And, even then, their papers were not in order.

The result was predictable; some candidates failed to file papers on time, while in some cases the party had more than one candidate in the same wards or constituencies.

So glaring was the chaos that several aspiring candidates only got to know that they were not on the party list at the 11th hour.

The confusion that characterised the CCC's submission of nomination papers contrasts sharply with their ZANU-PF opponents who managed to file papers for their candidates without any glitches.

Nyanga South MP and ZANU-PF Secretary for Local Government in the Politburo, Supa Mandiwanzira, said the Nomination Court filing exercise was smooth because candidates had submitted their papers a week before the actual nomination day, as allowed by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC).

"We had nearly a week of putting together all our papers, getting them verified by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission. That process helped in that we didn't have to queue for a long time in the courts today," said Mandiwanzira.

It was a different story for the party that tells its supporters that it has a secret, strategic plan. As late as 1800hrs on nomination day, two hours after closing time, the CCC party was at sixes and sevens.

Candidates that had prevailed in the internal party candidate selection processes found that they had been excluded from the list, with no explanation.

A case in point was one involving Chitungwiza St Mary's Freddy Masarirevhu.

He had garnered the most votes in the CCC candidate selection process, but found himself replaced by Brighton Mazhindu on the list of candidates. Still, he received a call from a party official to submit his papers at the nomination court. In the end, CCC ended up with two candidates. Yet, they blamed shadows for this.

In Bulawayo, the CCC party almost failed to submit their party lists.

Candidates arrived early, but their papers only arrived after 3pm from party offices. This meant that some of them could not present their papers in time. Some of the papers had errors on them, with missing signatures and other issues.

The Presiding Election Officer (PEO) said he could not accept new nominations as the cut-off time for submissions had lapsed.

The CCC had to plead their case saying they were still making corrections on their forms. The PEO accused the CCC of being disorderly and expressed dissatisfaction with their conduct. Still, he was patient with them, giving them up to midnight to sort themselves out.

Political analyst, Dr Alexander Rusero, says the chaos that characterised the CCC filing of papers was bound to happen given the "nature of what they call strategic ambiguity."

"The strategic ambiguity of the CCC was overdone to the extent of becoming strategic confusion. However, we have to realise that CCC is pretty new in terms of itself as a bona fide entity contesting this election on this magnitude," Dr Rusero said.

He further said the "so-called insulation and averting infiltration are just flimsy excuse" as Nelson Chamisa (CCC leader) used the nomination process to consolidate power and foolproof the possibility of some palace coup or dramatic ouster as was the case during the Mwonzora debacle.

The director of Harare-based Mass Public Opinion (MPOI), Dr Eldred Masunungure, was less charitable in his assessment of the CCC.

He said it was evident even before the candidate nomination process that ZANU-PF and CCC were polar opposites, with one using tried and tested organisational methods and processes while the other resorted to an experimental exercise.

"It appears the CCC's experiment exploded on the leadership's face. It is a long established axiom that power needs and grows from organisation and the CCC's novel organisational amorphousness proved the validity of this maxim beyond reasonable doubt," said Dr Masunungure.

Other analysts said the anarchy in the CCC camp showed that an organisational structure with appointed or elected officials who can execute their duties as mandated by the party's constitution was a fundamental requisite for political organisations.