By Takudzwa Madondo
HARARE – Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) says it has been inundated with reports that members of the security forces were being forced to cast their postal ballots in front of their bosses in open violation of the secrecy of the process.
Addressing a media conference in Harare on Wednesday, CCC spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere was up in arms the secrecy to one’s vote was being violated through what the opposition derisively terms ‘command voting’.
Police officers cast their ballots on Tuesday amid reports that the balloting process carried out within their cantonment areas and work offices was being conducted in front of their superiors and without the presence of agents of participating parties as is required under the law.
Mahere said “Our incident tracker has been awash with reports from prison officers, police officers and other security forces saying they were being forced to vote under the supervision of their seniors”.
The CCC spokesperson also accused Zanu PF of ripping apart and burning opposition campaign posters.
She said CCC activists have been targeted for acts of politically motivated violence and unwarranted arrests by the police.
“We are also keeping a tracker of all the incidents of violence,” she said.
“In fact, our elections directorate is in the process of compiling a dossier that’s going to be given to the SADC observer mission and all the other observers in the country so that they have got a sense of the extent to which Zanu PF, you know, conducts itself…”
Mahere said the main opposition has put in place an attractive manifesto and has no reasons to beat up opponents and also destroy their posters.
“We don’t need to be ripping apart their posters. We don’t need to be petrol bombing billboards, we don’t need to be beating up their supporters,” Mahere said.
She was upbeat the Nelson Chamisa led opposition was headed for a crushing victory against Zanu PF.
The politician rallied Zimbabweans to turn up in their millions in various polling stations to cast their ballots and ensure a resounding opposition victory.
She also condemned the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) for not giving the opposition party an up-to-date voters roll and the location where ballot papers were being printed.
Mahere said ZEC was “failing to comply with that provision of the electoral law and it shows this is a material breach of the electoral law and is something that cannot be acceptable”.
Turning to the arrest of the party parliamentary candidate for Glenview South, Gladmore Hakata and 39 CCC activists on Tuesday, Mahere demanded their immediate release, adding that “they should not spend more than another moment under police detention”.
Zimbabweans head for crunch elections this coming week with tensions high on the conduct of the poll by ZEC.
The poll outcome is seen as a toss of the coin between the ruling Zanu PF party and the main opposition CCC.
