News / Local
Candidates intimidating electorate must be disqualified
16 Aug 2023 at 01:42hrs | Views
DEAR President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) chairperson Justice Priscilla Chigumba,
A video of a Zanu-PF candidate intimidating villagers, telling them that they will be issued with voting cards at the polling stations, and those cards will be used to detect who they voted for, has gone viral.
How do you, Comrade Mnangagwa, feel about this especially when you go around telling the world that Zimbabwe will hold free and fair elections?
The amount of abuse in this election has reached unprecedented levels and if you are genuine about free and fair elections, Mr President, you must whip your people into line.
Failure to do so is a demonstration of your inability to control your party.
If that continues, then you do not deserve to be a national leader.
Observers, both local and international, and the media, both local and international, must pay particular attention to this absurd proposal by Zanu-PF candidates and share the stories with Zec and keep the evidence so that they can produce it if the process is challenged in the courts.
Justice Chigumba, as the head of Zec, you must embark on a massive publicity campaign on State radio and all other public media outlets to educate the electorate that their vote is their secret, and to dissociate your commission from this misinformation by Zanu-PF goons.
Opposition candidates with evidence should also report these cases to the police and Zec so that such candidates are disqualified.
The regional, continental, and international leaders must tell the authorities in Zimbabwe to stop this inappropriate behaviour by the ruling Zanu-PF party officials as it violates people's right to freely elect their leaders.
And the people of Zimbabwe, from Zambezi to Limpopo, must resist such intimidation as no one will ever know who one voted for.
They must be weary of the lies of desperate candidates and punish them for the abuse in the ballot box.
A video of a Zanu-PF candidate intimidating villagers, telling them that they will be issued with voting cards at the polling stations, and those cards will be used to detect who they voted for, has gone viral.
How do you, Comrade Mnangagwa, feel about this especially when you go around telling the world that Zimbabwe will hold free and fair elections?
The amount of abuse in this election has reached unprecedented levels and if you are genuine about free and fair elections, Mr President, you must whip your people into line.
Failure to do so is a demonstration of your inability to control your party.
If that continues, then you do not deserve to be a national leader.
Observers, both local and international, and the media, both local and international, must pay particular attention to this absurd proposal by Zanu-PF candidates and share the stories with Zec and keep the evidence so that they can produce it if the process is challenged in the courts.
Justice Chigumba, as the head of Zec, you must embark on a massive publicity campaign on State radio and all other public media outlets to educate the electorate that their vote is their secret, and to dissociate your commission from this misinformation by Zanu-PF goons.
Opposition candidates with evidence should also report these cases to the police and Zec so that such candidates are disqualified.
The regional, continental, and international leaders must tell the authorities in Zimbabwe to stop this inappropriate behaviour by the ruling Zanu-PF party officials as it violates people's right to freely elect their leaders.
And the people of Zimbabwe, from Zambezi to Limpopo, must resist such intimidation as no one will ever know who one voted for.
They must be weary of the lies of desperate candidates and punish them for the abuse in the ballot box.
Source - Southern Eye
