CCC lodges complaint with ZEC

OPPOSITION Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) has identified 20 cases of fraudulent registration of candidates under their banner at the Nomination Court with those on Zimbabwe Electoral Commission's (ZEC) list indicating ignorance of how their names got there.

CCC has since approached ZEC over the matter with the hope the names are struck off the final list expected on June 30.

Double candidates under CCC cropped up after nomination day, Wednesday across the country leading to the party facing massive backlash for deciding to use its new Consensus Candidate Selection Process instead of traditional primary elections.

Speaking to journalists Thursday evening, party Spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere fingered Zanu-PF in the ‘fraud' and revealed police cases had been opened to reverse it before election day on August 23.

Mahere said ‘extra' candidates in Mt. Pleasant where she will be running, Harare East, Harare Central, Harare South, Harare North, Hatcliffe, Hatfield, Epworth South, Chitungwiza North, Chitungwiza South, St. Mary's Churu and Warren Park should be struck off the final ballot paper by ZEC.

Similar issues were raised for Sunningdale, Entumbane in Bulawayo, Kariba, Masvingo and Marondera.

"Zanu-PF failed to compromise our own signatories, they failed to penetrate our systems so what do they go and do, they went and forged our logo, they literally took a photocopy and forged signatures," said Mahere.

"They then created the 20-odd double candidates that you see across the country for the National Assembly and a number of others throughout the Wards. Anywhere where you see more than one CCC representative only one of them was duly nominated by us and properly signed for.

"Around 9am on Wednesday a sting operation began to unfold and we began to receive reports from our security team, our elections team and some of our intelligence that there was a state-driven sting operation which is now affecting 15 constituencies in Harare, three in Bulawayo, one in Kariba and one in Marondera."

Mahere revealed that specimens filed by the fraudulent parties were not using CCC's logo which was not just printed but embossed. The identified parties used photocopied papers to file instead.

None of the 20 ‘fraud victims' knew how their names ended up on the list or who had paid for them to be considered, according to Mahere.

"If you speak to a number of them, they will actually say they do not know who paid the money on their behalf.

"Some were saying they did not participate in the process leading to the question of who filed. We know who those people are, and we are making criminal reports against them.

"The signatures that appear on those forms are forged, the logo that appears on their forms that is being used is a complete forgery. The bottom line is that their candidate submission is a complete forgery, a complete invalidity, a nullity and it is going to be dealt with intensively."

A CCC delegation visited ZEC offices Thursday morning to lodge complaints over the matter.