One of Zimbabwe’s opposition parties is pushing for the postponement of the country’s general elections set for 2023, arguing that the polls will be another waste of time and resources if they are held before electoral reforms, APA learnt here on Monday.
The MDC-T party led by Douglas Mwonzora said it believed that dialogue with President Emmerson Mnangagwa was the way to go.
MDC-T national chairman Morgen Komichi Komichi said elections without reforms were a waste of time as they would be disputed.
“We must come to reality and say because we don’t have electoral reforms, the outcome is predetermined and can be manipulated, and it will be stupid for Zimbabweans to go for an election or a programme that they know the outcome is predetermined,” Komichi told the privately owned NewsDay.
He said it was time that Zimbabwe moved away from a two decades-long cycle characterised by elections followed by electoral disputes, court challenges and calls for regional and international intervention.
“It will be very unreasonable for us as Zimbabweans to just assume things will be okay on their own without us taking action as far as the pushing for national dialogue is concerned.”
The MDC-T has been accused of working with the governing ZANU PF to block the 2023 elections and also decimate the main opposition MDC Alliance led by Nelson Chamisa.
Chamisa lost the last presidential elections held in 2018, amassing 45.07 percent of the vote against 51.44 percent for Mnangagwa. The then MDC-T leader Thokozani Khupe was a distant third, with only 0.96 percent of the vote.
MDC Alliance got 88 parliamentary seats in the elections against 179 for ZANU PF and one for MDC-T.
MDC-T has, however, used the judicial system to muscle out the MDC Alliance from parliament, claiming that all the seats won by the latter are its seats due to a wrangle over the name MDC, which it claims belongs to it.
JN/APA