There would have been more mess, if we released candidate list earlier: CCC

The Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) claims Zanu PF manipulated the nomination court process to make it administratively difficult for the opposition party to submit forms for its candidates.  

This is after the opposition party failed to submit the names of candidates for the 10 provincial council seats in Bulawayo.  

Although some party members have blamed the party’s leadership for centralising the nomination process, CCC asserts they had the candidates list but were unable to submit it due to ZEC’s bureaucratic procedures. 

CCC deputy national spokesperson, Gift Ostallos Siziba, said the party encountered bureaucratic obstacles that Zanu PF put in place to make sure they delayed in submitting candidate forms. 

“This happened in Bulawayo and in fact, across the country. We had administrative challenges on the part of ZEC that affected our deployment in the Nomination Court. This was also seen in Matabeleland North, Matabeleland South, Mashonaland West and in Harare. There was a deliberate red tape engineered by Zanu PF through its manipulation of the Commission to make sure that administratively it becomes impossible,” he said in an interview with CITE. 

“Zanu PF is failing to deal with the authentic opposition because their agenda has always been to destroy the existing opposition after they have failed to capture it.” 

According to Siziba, all their candidate lists were there at the Nomination Courts before 4 pm, the deadline for new submissions. 

“The case of Bulawayo in particular, was difficult because the nomination court itself was small. The law says it must be an open court but that was not an open court because the court was manned by the police. They chose that particular court deliberately because they knew that not everyone can fit,” he said. 

“Any candidate who was in that queue was de facto and de jure inside the court. If you’re in the queue, you are actually in court. They were supposed to use a bigger court, but the intention was to stop us from fielding our deployment in council and in Parliament.” 

Siziba claimed that Zanu PF devised a plan B after realising that CCC would not release their list of candidates before the Nomination Court. 

“We were conscious about this,” he said, noting CCC has approached the Electoral Court to resolve the submission of their provincial council list. 

“The list was there but people were confusing political debates about the names on the list and the availability of the list. All the lists were contested across the country because naturally, when there is a list, someone expects their name to be there and that’s politics.” 

He highlighted that going to court was necessary because CCC had to act within the purview of the law. 

“What the court and ZEC decide to do is another thing, but we have to exhaust those little remedies,” said Siziba. 

The CCC deputy spokesperson denied claims its party leadership was to blame for the nomination debacle as they managed the process from Harare. 

“Of course, logistical challenges can happen in an organisation, but anyone in the movement knows and understands there’s nothing that was happening in Harare. The only thing that happened in Harare was the signing, which was a resolution by the movement to avoid double candidates,” Siziba said. 

“That’s why Zanu’s only option was to actually forge signatures because it was not possible this time around for us to have double candidates because we centralised the signing of papers. Those who suffer from the mind of a rat think only one person was signing in the party.” 

Siziba alleged Zanu PF ended up forging papers because it was not possible to corrupt the system. 

“Those who came into Parliament and council through the back doors were used to meeting papers halfway and bribing people who were signing,” he said also accusing ZEC of “smuggling forged signatures.” 

“The same Commission that was able to thoroughly inspect our signatures for CCC could not inspect the forged signatures in all the 29 wards of (Bulawayo) council. Those were not authentic signatures, but ZEC managed to have those people showing beyond any doubt that ZEC was in connivance.” 

“That’s why we said if ZEC is not in connivance, it must rectify that, which is why we’re in court. Those people will not have managed to submit with the way ZEC was thorough with our papers. ZEC was supposed to have been thorough with the papers that were signed by Mbuso and Javangwe” 

 The CCC deputy spokesperson claimed had the party filed earlier, Zanu PF would have interfered with their candidates and there would have been more chaos. 

“Zanu was earmarking candidates in Harare, Gweru, Kadoma, in Manicaland everywhere. The intention by Forever Associate Zimbabwe (FAZ) was to approach all the candidates, and give them forged signatures earlier,” Siziba said. 

“If we released our list a week before, even two days before, I can tell you without a doubt that there was going to be more mess than what we are dealing with now.  Because we know what happens in Zanu PF that’s how we deal with our politics, we act out of knowledge, important briefings and make strategic decisions.”