"Without A Voters Roll, The Election Is Already Rigged"
Award-winning journalist Hopewell Chin’ono has warned Zimbabwe’s opposition political parties that they are running out of time to prepare for the 2023 general elections.
Chin’ono, a government critic who was arrested for exposing high-level corruption in 2020, also warned the opposition that the election has already been rigged through the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission’s refusal to release the voters’ roll.
He made the remarks after President Emmerson Mnangagwa said that the 2023 general elections will be held in August. Chin’ono tweeted:
President Emmerson Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe announced that Zimbabwe’s elections will be held in August.
The constitution says it must be held before 26 August.
It means the opposition has only 2 months to have its candidates ready, have its polling agents ready and have its finances for the election campaign ready.
ZANU PF doesn’t have this problem because it illegally uses State resources.
There is one problem for the opposition, there is NO voters’ roll. An election is a voters’ roll, polling agents and resources.
Without a Voters Roll, the election is already rigged. However, the opposition should participate regardless.
As Professor Steven Levitsky says in his book, How Democracies Die, opposition parties should always compete regardless of the electoral conditions.
If they don’t, dictatorships will always have bogus opposition leaders like Douglas Mwonzora to use in order to create a false image of opposition politics.
The trick is in getting as many people registered to vote to make rigging harder.
So the election is in August, the quicker the opposition moves to get its act together, the better!
The biggest tragedy and nightmare is ZANUPF coming back with a two-thirds majority, Zimbabwe would be in a huge mess if that were to happen!
Everyone has a role in making sure that it doesn’t happen! Your vote matters, use it!
Addressing thousands of ZANU PF supporters on Friday who had come to witness the commissioning of the Rwenya Bridge which was swept away in 2013, Mnangagwa said elections will be held in August but did not reveal the exact date.
More: Pindula News
