APA-Harare (Zimbabwe) Zimbabwe’s main opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) on Tuesday called for fresh elections supervised by the African Union (AU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), citing what it said were widespread irregularities that rendered the August 23-24 ballot invalid.
CCC deputy spokesperson Gift Siziba called on the AU and SADC to mediate in the crisis following last week’s elections whose conduct was marred by delays in the delivery of ballot papers to CCC strongholds and intimidation of voters in rural constituencies which are dominated by President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s ZANU PF.
“Zimbabwe needs a fresh and broad and proper election to exit the current crisis,” t Siziba told journalists in Harare.
He added: “The solution lies in calling upon our African brothers and those in the region, particularly SADC (and) the African Union, to help us to facilitate, to meditate, to scaffold and more importantly to guarantee a process that will lead our return to legitimacy.”
SADC’s observer mission last week criticised the conduct of the poll in which over six million Zimbabweans voted for a president, members of the National Assembly and local government councillors.
The mission said the elections failed to meet the requirements outlined in the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections, citing the intimidation of voters, shambolic administration of the polling process by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) and disruptions of CCC campaign rallies by ZANU PF and the police.
The AU observer mission cited some of the irregularities raised in the SADC report but said the elections were held in a peaceful environment.
Results published by ZEC at the weekend showed that Mnangagwa, 80, had won a second term with 52.6 percent of the vote against 44 percent for CCC leader Nelson Chamisa, 45.
ZANU PF garnered 136 out of the 210 contested National Assembly seats while the CCC got 76.
JN/APA