Over 300 CCC meetings approved by police, 65 banned

FROM January to July 2023, the main opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) party had 345 of its political gatherings sanctioned, the Home Affairs Ministry has revealed.

Home Affairs Permanent Secretary Gerald Gwinji said this Monday while addressing diplomatic missions accredited to Zimbabwe and observer missions for the harmonised elections preparedness.

According to Gwinji, from 1 January 2023 up to 10 July, political parties filed close to 2 000 notifications.

"Since January 2023, operational districts across the country are maintaining registers relating to all notifications and intentions to hold public meetings made by political parties.

"During this period, different political parties have notified the police of their gatherings and some of them met the legal requirement while some could not.

"The police have received a total of 1 437 notifications from  Zanu-PF of which 1351 were compliant, whilst 86 were not compliant as a result they could not proceed.

"The CCC filed 410 notifications, 345 of these were compliant whilst the remaining 65 were not.

"The MDC had 30 notifications out of which 23 were compliant; other political parties put together a total of 89 notifications and 80 were found to be compliant," Gwinji said.

The CCC previously said 92 of its gatherings have either been banned or disrupted since its formation in February 2022.

Opposition spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere described the barring of the party's rallies as an act of "repression" that has nothing to do with the law.