News / National
Tsvangirai 'exposes Mugabe rigging' plot
13 Jul 2017 at 06:46hrs | Views
The MDC-T yesterday claimed it had unearthed a parallel voter registration exercise involving the Registrar-General's (RG) Office and Zanu-PF, in what the opposition party alleges is an elaborate rigging exercise.
The MDC-T yesterday alleged it had evidence that officials from the RG's Office had left Harare for Mutare, where they were issuing birth certificates and identity documents to the Johane Marange sect members, a community that usually lives on the periphery of society.
It was claimed that the "parallel" voter registration exercise would begin at the weekend, when President Robert Mugabe, who is in Singapore, would be back in the country and would travel to Marange, but this could not be independently verified.
For the opposition, this is part of a complex scheme, as the seething MDC-T claimed Zanu-PF and the RG's Office were compiling "a parallel biometric voters' roll, as part of a sinister plot to rig next year's election".
Tsvangirai, in a statement yesterday, said teams had been deployed from the RG's Office and were conducting voter registration ahead of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) process, which is yet to be rolled out.
"We have been tracking a clandestine voter registration scam by Zanu-PF using Registrar-General Tobaiwa Mudede's office outside and ahead of the legal voter registration process by Zec, now legally mandated to carry out such exercises," Tsvangirai's spokesperson, Luke Tamborinyoka said
"Only yesterday (Tuesday) morning, two buses from the Registrar-General's Office, with registration numbers ABT2419 and AEF7111, left the RG's Makombe offices along Harare's Leopold Takawira Street at exactly 11:13am headed for Noah Taguta's church shrine in Marange, Mutare West, where insiders said an illicit voter registration exercise for Zanu-PF supporters in Manicaland was scheduled to kick off today (yesterday)."
The MDC-T has been demanding that Zec be transparent on the supply of the computer central server, which will be used to store data.
But, Zanu-PF spokesperson, Simon Khaya Moyo dismissed the MDC-T's claims as "hogwash".
"These things are done by Zec, why should we be doing that? This is total hogwash. They say these things, whether it's true or not. Because they are the opposition, they can say whatever they want," he said.
Moyo could not be drawn into commenting on Mugabe's visit to Manicaland, referring all questions to Information minister Christopher Mushohwe.
Mushohwe also professed ignorance about the trip.
"I do not know and I have not been advised of any event in Manicaland," he said.
Efforts to get a comment from the RG's Office and Home Affairs minister Ignatius Chombo were fruitless last night.
The MDC-T yesterday alleged it had evidence that officials from the RG's Office had left Harare for Mutare, where they were issuing birth certificates and identity documents to the Johane Marange sect members, a community that usually lives on the periphery of society.
It was claimed that the "parallel" voter registration exercise would begin at the weekend, when President Robert Mugabe, who is in Singapore, would be back in the country and would travel to Marange, but this could not be independently verified.
For the opposition, this is part of a complex scheme, as the seething MDC-T claimed Zanu-PF and the RG's Office were compiling "a parallel biometric voters' roll, as part of a sinister plot to rig next year's election".
Tsvangirai, in a statement yesterday, said teams had been deployed from the RG's Office and were conducting voter registration ahead of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) process, which is yet to be rolled out.
"We have been tracking a clandestine voter registration scam by Zanu-PF using Registrar-General Tobaiwa Mudede's office outside and ahead of the legal voter registration process by Zec, now legally mandated to carry out such exercises," Tsvangirai's spokesperson, Luke Tamborinyoka said
The MDC-T has been demanding that Zec be transparent on the supply of the computer central server, which will be used to store data.
But, Zanu-PF spokesperson, Simon Khaya Moyo dismissed the MDC-T's claims as "hogwash".
"These things are done by Zec, why should we be doing that? This is total hogwash. They say these things, whether it's true or not. Because they are the opposition, they can say whatever they want," he said.
Moyo could not be drawn into commenting on Mugabe's visit to Manicaland, referring all questions to Information minister Christopher Mushohwe.
Mushohwe also professed ignorance about the trip.
"I do not know and I have not been advised of any event in Manicaland," he said.
Efforts to get a comment from the RG's Office and Home Affairs minister Ignatius Chombo were fruitless last night.
Source - newsday
