By Yvonne Manjengwa
18 January 2018 – The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) yesterday held its first National Standing Committee meeting in 2018 at Harvest House which was chaired by the acting MDC President Eng. Elias Mudzuri.
The meeting discussed various pertinent party and national issues and also noted that the party remains firmly united behind the visionary leadership of President Morgan Tsvangirai who is currently out of the country for medical check up.
The meeting also appreciated the remarkable work that is being done by party cadres at various levels in the ongoing Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) blitz.Eng .Mudzuri encouraged all party cadres to remain focused and united as they mobile eligible Zimbabweans to go out and register as voters.
“We would like the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to compile a credible national voter’s roll in time for the 2018 elections .Amongst other important issues, all election materials, including the ballot papers, must be procured in a transparent and credible manner that will enable all stakeholders to be satisfied with the level of transparency and accountability”, said Mudzuri.
MDC has called upon the government, in conjunction with ZEC, to provide clear timelines as to when the elections will be held this year.
“Our impeccable party intelligence has since gathered information to the effect that there are untoward and improper machinations that the Mnangagwa administration is currently pursuing in order to delay the holding of elections when they are due. The ZANU PF government is clearly aware that the MDC and its Alliance partners will romp to a resounding electoral victory in any free and fair election”.
MDC notes that they are deeply concerned by the continued militarization of villages around the country.
“We have got solid and incontrovertible evidence pointing to the fact that thousands of army officers in civilian attire have been deployed in the countryside for the purposes of carrying out clandestine political campaigns on behalf of ZANU-PF”
In the meeting MDC demanded the immediate and unconditional demilitarization of all villages and communities and they alluded that people should not be forced to surrender their BVR serial numbers to village heads and ZANU PF officials.
“We also demand that the 2018 elections should be SADC, AU and UN guaranteed .Basically, this means that the elections have to receive the seal of approval from all those important organisations in order to ensure that they are free and fair and also that they will produce a credible result that reflects the true will of the people”.
In addition, the MDC in their demands noted that the public broadcaster, that is, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting television station and its four radio stations should be accessible to all political players in tandem with the dictates of the national constitution.
“Presently, ZBC TV and ZBC radio stations are the exclusive domain of the ZANU government and are, in fact, virtually closed to all opposition political players”, said Mudzuri.
