Zimbabwean opposition parties are not impressed by what they call the country’s electoral body’s conduct of past elections.
The now want next year’s presidential elections overseen by a special team put together by the United Nations and the African Union.
TVC NEWS Oluwatosin Omogoye-Sampson reports that the mandate from the opposition figures gathered for this meeting was clear: create enough concern to force some form of independent conduct of the next presidential poll.
And they point to the Zimbabwe Electoral commision as an umpire that can’t be trusted.
In a show of what awaits the Zanu-pf and president Robert Mugabe next year, opposition parties are calling for a National Election Reform Agenda.
And part of that agenda, perennial Mugabe foe Morgan Tsvangirai is again preparing to play a key role.
A growing spate of discontent has been seen in recent months as Zimbabweans groan under growing economic hardship, police brutality and delays in payment of workers’ salaries.
These perhaps have strengthened opposition claims for a change of course from Zanu-Pf and Mugabe.
And leaders from several political parties are more than ever before telling supporters what lies ahead in 2018. But they insist the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has failed to be impartial, and should be disbanded.
The country hasn’t known any ruler apart from Mugabe since independence from Britain in 1980.
And as the country prepares for the poll scheduled for July next year, the big question will be who blinks first: a Mugabe determined to run again at 93, or an opposition that hasn’t done too well in getting him out of office?
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