Call for good leadership in upcoming by-elections

ZIMBABWE Council of Churches (ZCC) through the Gweru Local Ecumenical Fellowship (LEFs) compiled a document titled, the Gweru Ecumenical Election Covenant (GEEC) in an effort to set the standard of expected leadership in the by-elections to be held in March 2022.

ZCC has always participated in influencing policy-making processes and decisionmaking in government, hence with the GEEC document, the church leaders are taking part in prompting political leaders to come up with policies that are in line with constitutional provisions.

Gweru LEFs urged aspiring candidates to work towards improving people’s standards of living noting, that: “We need leaders who can liberate our people from poverty, joblessness, poor service delivery and an ever-falling standard of living.’’ Speaking at the same event some of the faith leaders’ denounced political violence and vote buying, saying: “We implore political parties to shun vote buying. Let the people judge you by your vision and ideas, we condemn all forms of violence including intimidation”.

The church leaders also added that they were united by a common desire to contribute and support constructive initiatives to ensure the realisation of free, fair, transparent, peaceful and credible elections in Mkoba constituency, Gweru Urban ward 2 and in Zimbabwe in general.

To add, in an effort to affirm the right to vote and to encourage citizens to participate in electoral processes, ZCC through its member churches and structures launched the #IPrayIVote campaign.

The campaign is hinged on four pillars, which are electorate mobilisation, agenda setting, election observation and postelection envisioning.

The campaign has been playing a pivotal role in educating the citizens, informing and giving updates on contesting candidates using social media platforms, hence GEEC is a product of the agenda setting pillar.

The IPrayIVote campaign has been running under the guidelines of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec), which stipulates how voter education should be conducted.

In its covenant, the church called on stakeholders such as the security sector, Zec, the media and Judiciary to faithfully, independently and diligently execute their constitutional mandates in a non-partisan and professional manner.

Zimbabwe Council of

Churches