Staff Reporter
Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) leader Nelson Chamisa has threatened that his newly-formed political party will take to the streets and protest against the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) if the election body fails to produce a proper voter’s roll.
Chamisa said this while addressing party supporters at Zimbabwe Grounds in Highfield yesterday during the launch of the opposition party’s 26 March 2022 by-election campaign.
“See what ZEC is doing with the voter’s roll. Preparing a futile ground for Zanu PF to rig the election. This time we want to see a proper voter’s roll or else we will yellowrise the streets violently demonstrating. I know you are all ready to take to the streets. I will give you a signal when the time is ripe,” said Chamisa.
This is not the first time Chamisa has called for demonstrations against ZEC. In 2018, the opposition party demonstrated against ZEC demanding early release of election results. The violent demonstration on 1 August 2018 saw the business community losing goods worth thousands of United States dollars. Vehicles were burnt, buildings destroyed and some people lost their lives.
The opposition leader has always advocated for violence and destruction and yet has no vision or development strategies that benefit the country.
Currently, the Government is on an overdrive reconstructing the urban infrastructure that the opposition councils have failed to maintain. The intended violent demonstration will, therefore, reverse the strides that have been made by the New Dispensation so far.
Meanwhile, Chamisa made a declaration that CCC will never allow the 2023 election to be rigged by Zanu PF adding that this time around it is Zanu PF which is going to make the claims after losing to CCC. He boasted of having some reliable sources and contacts within the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP), the Army and the President’s office who gave him updates regularly.
“Come 2023 it is Zanu-PF you are going to see crying that CCC has rigged the election. We won’t disclose what we are going to do now, but we just urge you to register to vote and vote in numbers so that we win the election by a bigger margin,” he said.
Some party supporters from Kwekwe told this publication that they arrived at the venue as early as 5 am and were angered by Chamisa’s late coming. Many of these disgruntled supporters walked away while the opposition leader was still to conclude his address.
“We were here by 5 am and we were expecting him (Chamisa) to address us starting 11 am, but he only showed up after 1 pm. We are now hungry and tired. We are now leaving before the end of programme. Chamisa should be considerate,” complained one party member only identified as Talkmore.
CCC defied police directive that no people should be bused from other provinces to attend the Harare rally. Opposition party supporters were bused from as far as Bulawayo and Masvingo.
