'ZEC should be disbanded'

Zimbabwe's main opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) has demanded a rerun after Zanu-PF's Emmerson Mnangagwa was declared the winner in the recently held general election.

Mnangagwa was duly elected president after he secured a 52,6 % of the vote ahead of his opponent, CCC's Nelson Chamisa who got 44%.

The election was discredited by several election observer missions who in their preliminary reports said the electoral process was flawed and biased against CCC which saw its meetings banned, members arrested, and denied access to the ballot paper among other things.

CCC also wants the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) disbanded for failing to independently run the election.

Addressing the media at a press conference, Tuesday, the party's deputy spokesperson Gift Ostallos Siziba said the entire electoral process was flawed as such there is a need for a redo overseen by a private player selected by SADC and African Union.

He said thousands failed to cast their vote because of barriers created by the delimitation report, unavailability of the voters' roll and intimidation among other things.

"In the current political crisis, the only way this sacred right can be fulfilled, the only way can resolve the current predicament we are facing as a people, the Citizens Coalition for Change led by Advocate Nelson Chamisa has assessed the situation and has made the following clear and emphatic demands, that to restore pure democracy and legitimacy in our country, we are not going to settle for less none other than a free, fair, credible and a proper election.

"The solution lies in calling upon our African brothers to facilitate, to mediate, to scaffold, and more importantly to guarantee a process that will lead our return to legitimacy in the shortest period.

"This election that we are coming from, was a flawed process in its entirety for the avoidance of doubt and the solution to put it very clearly is to have a fresh, free, fair and credible election," he said.

Asked if the party was not going to pressure ZEC into a recount of the vote, Siziba said "Zec failed the credibility test, the transparency test and the professional test and therefore ZEC failed its fidelity to the Zimbabwean constitution and ZEC must be disbanded, and a credible player, a professional player, scaffolded by regional and international players is the only way to have a free fair election.

Siziba could not confirm if CCC was going to court.

Earlier, an unstamped court application to the constitutional court went viral with some party activists posting the papers saying the "game is not over yet."

"We said we need a fresh new and proper election in this country whose process is scaffolded by SADC, by African Union, by all other interested parties interested in the democracy of this country."

Siziba said the whole process including the delimitation exercise was flawed.

He added there was intimidation of voters and polling officers.

Siziba also complained about the chaos witnessed on the election date when voting material was delivered late to many polling stations in the opposition's strongholds.