The MDC-T has implored the SADC Electoral Advisory Council to ensure there is smooth transition of power should the opposition win in the upcoming elections.
President Nelson Chamisa and nine other national standing committee members on Tuesday held a two-hour briefing with the seven-member SADC Electoral Advisory Council at the party’s headquarters ahead of the watershed polls due in a few months’ time.
The opposition party said it was imperative for the army “to undo their previous statements that they would not salute a President who did not participate in the liberation struggle by making a clear and unequivocal statement that they will this time respect the sovereign will of the people”.
MDC-T president Nelson Chamisa told the SADC delegation that it was worrying that a few months before the much anticipated plebiscite, electoral reforms have not been implemented.
“President Chamisa told the delegation, led by Advocate Leshele Thoahlane, that the Zimbabwe government has not been sincere on its commitment to a free, fair and credible plebicite as it had not yet made public in substantive terms the roadmap to the next election,” the party`s
Presidential Spokesperson and Director of Communications, Luke Tamborinyoka, said in a statement.
“He bemoaned the fact that the recommendations made by SADC in the 2013 election in terms of the implementation of key reforms had not yet been done, among them media reforms that would ensure equal coverage of all contesting parties”.
Zimbabwe is expected to go to the polls between July and August, with President Emmerson Mnangagwa yet to announce the date of polling.
The party also raised issues to do with violence and the abuse of traditional leaders, who are made to campaign for the ruling party.
On its part, the SADC team assured the party leadership that they will do all they can to ensure that Zimbabwe holds a truly free, fair and credible poll.
