Chamisa hangs on to final list of candidates

Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) leader Nelson Chamisa has withheld the final list of parliamentary and council candidates who will represent his party in the August 23 elections, he says to keep his political foes guessing.

At a media briefing on Sunday, the party's Citizen's Independent Selection Panel (CISP) which is handling the candidate selection process announced three nominees in most constituencies, but shied from announcing the chosen candidates.

Chamisa said the party would announce its candidates just before the nomination court sits on Wednesday to register candidates for the August 23 election.

He told reporters: "Why should we announce candidates in the context where we have Zanu PF is literally pursuing our candidates one by one? Why should we give you the final list right now so that we advertise targets and victims?

"We are dealing with Zanu PF and we know how to deal with them. Even if they come, hoping to get information from journalists, we will not give them that information. The only information that we will give them is that we are ready, and we will win."

The CCC employed a controversial new method of choosing its candidates, a "citizen consensus" model where influential people and organisations in a particular area were expected to choose candidates who are then vetted by the CISP against set criteria including "loyalty to the movement" and criminal history.

Chamisa said despite not announcing the names of candidates to represent the party, the process had been a success.

"The citizens' movement already has candidates. We have already concluded the process. Candidates are selected at the local level for ward representatives, it has already been done. The list we have given you has the final nominees in each constituency," he said.

"The citizens have already decided on which candidates they prefer. Citizens already know who their candidates are and as leaders, we just facilitate the selection processes."

The CCC's critics claim Chamisa is leaving the announcement of candidates to the very last minute before the nomination courts sit to avoid a draw-out appeals process, and also prevent losing candidates from fielding as independents.

Chamisa denies this.

"If you have any query and you have approached the grievances body and your issue is not resolved to your satisfaction, you're free to stand on your own, in fact the more the merrier," he said of the threat of losing nominees standing as independents.

"But what we know is that CCC will have a full complement of candidates in every ward and every constituency."