The Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) party leader, Nelson Chamisa, said the party is only left with finalising its Harare candidate list before officially announcing its 2023 election candidates, with the Nomination Court to sit in five days’ time.
Nomination Courts will convene across the country on June 21, 2023, to formalise candidates for the August 23 polls, but the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has already begun accepting nomination papers from presidential, parliamentary, and local authority candidates.
CCC has come under fire for failing to announce its candidates, declaring it will not be forced to do so before the selection process is completed, a move that critics, including some party members, have criticised.
Chamisa told party structures in Harare on Thursday that candidate selection took longer as the party had to choose the finest individuals to serve the people, and that there would be no imposition.
“We are almost ready. All candidates are ready, except in Harare but we wanted to end with Harare because that is where we knew there will be many interested people, since that is our headquarter base,” he said.
Chamisa stated the Bulawayo candidate list was finalised last week, but the party had made sure that suitable candidates were chosen through its community consensus selection procedure.
“We have come up with the best candidates, the creme de la creme. We want you to know that as a party we don’t do primaries. Primaries are done in other parties and where we used to be before. We have a new way of selecting candidates and that is by consensus. The community decides, discusses and agrees among each other, who is suitable for what and where,” said the party leader.
He went on to say that people needed to understand that selecting candidates had to be precise, which is why the process had taken longer.
“The process has been lengthy because you must understand that when an elephant is pregnant, it takes a long time to deliver, unlike a rat,” Chamisa explained.
“We are also saying no to candidates who come drunk or use beer to bribe voters, we refuse that because we are a godly party.”
Despite the continual criticism directed against the CCC, Chamisa stated that he chose not to respond.
“They can say, ‘I cannot do it,’ ‘’I have no plan,’ ‘I won’t win,’ and whatever else they want, but I will remain silent,” he stated.
The CCC leader further stated that he had been throughout SADC advising regional leaders the opposition party would win these elections and they should proffer support.
