Chamisa threatens to unleash violence

MDC-Alliance leader Mr Nelson Chamisa has threatened to unleash violence that has never been seen before if the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission does not give in to his party’s demands for electoral reforms.

Mr Chamisa, who seems to be building an excuse for his defeat was speaking at the party’s star rally at White City Stadium in Bulawayo yesterday. He said he would not waste his time approaching the courts of law, which he claimed will be a futile attempt, instead he will take to the streets to force Zec and the Government to give in to his demands.

“I heard President Mnangagwa saying that if I have any grievances whatsoever I should go to the courts, I won’t go there, instead we will go to the people and we will discuss the issues in the court of public opinion, let the people decide. We are not joking, we insist and I assure you what we used to do at university we can do times 10, asifuni bumbulu, we want proper elections. Mnangagwa is now afraid of me because I have shown him that I am resolute,” said Mr Chamisa.

He said their main bone of contention was regarding the printing of the ballot paper, which Zec recently completed. He said as a party they were pushing for a reprint as they were not satisfied that the current ballot paper was authentic.

“We don’t want a fake ballot paper, we want a ballot paper which is genuine and authentic. Zec just told us from nowhere that they had printed the ballot paper, from where by who and how? I met with the Elders led by Kofi Annan and told them some of our grievances. On Monday I am meeting with Sadc and I will be telling them our concerns.

“I have told my team that we have to make sure that the ballot paper is reprinted, we don’t care whether there is now little time till 30 July. The least which we can agree on is to test batch by batch and after testing it, we will be part of the security details guarding it until voting day, worse still we would also push for a change on the colour of pen to be used when voting, if we were meant to vote using blue pens we would rather shift to red,” said Mr Chamisa.

He further threatened that he had the power to call on his supporters to shut down both Harare and Bulawayo just to force the Government to give in to their demands.

“We are not going to shake at all, we have made it clear that we will stage a vigil and that vigil is on. Come Tuesday when I have a meeting with Zec, when they don’t give in to our demands that means all hell will break loose. What we are demanding is our constitutional right and we have the numbers, right now when I say shut down Bulawayo, the whole of Bulawayo will be shut down, when I say shut down Harare, and Harare will indeed be shut down,” he said.

Mr Chamisa’s threats come in the backdrop of remarks made by the chairperson of The Elders, Kofi Annan yesterday, where he said political parties should not make unreasonable demands and should instead seek legal recourse if they feel the electoral process is being violated.

Meanwhile, in his address Mr Chamisa also took a cue from a number of President Mnangagwa’s policies by promising to roll out policies that the Government is already seized with, even claiming that some of these policies were originally pushed for by his party.

Some of these policies include what he termed a confess and surrender period where he would give individuals six months to confess and surrender money and property they got through corrupt activities. When President Mnangagwa took over office he gave corrupt individuals a 90-day amnesty to surrender the assets without facing any prosecution.

He also said when his Government gets into power, he would implement devolution of power, a policy the Government is already pushing where they are emphasising that each and every province should now be self sufficient.

and violence. But, generally, they have been able to get their work done. I think you, the citizens, also have a role to play on whether we have a credible election. I sense that sometimes there is a tendency for us to think that the elections commission should deliver the election.

“They cannot do it alone — they need you, they need the political parties and they need civil society. They need the cooperation of all stakeholders. I think given the limited time available, if you all work together and co-operate, you are likely to get a better election than you would otherwise have, and I think the results will be appreciated by everyone.”

He said progress has been made through the National Multi-party Liaison Committee to settle disputes between some parties and the commission. The committee is convened by Zec to listen to concerns from political parties contesting in the election.

Said Mr Annan: “We have had an opportunity to speak to quite a lot of people, from the President, to the political leaders, to the chair of the electoral commission (Justice Priscilla Chigumba) and from what we understand, in the last few days, some positive progress is being made and there is genuine discussion and hopefully a genuine give-and-take to try and resolve some of the outstanding issues before the election.”