National Electoral Reforms Agenda,(NERA), a consortium of opposition political parties pushing for electoral reforms ahead of the 2018 elections have announced that they have set the 22nd of March as a date for a mega demonstration against government’s move to hijack the procurement of Biometric Voter Registration, (BVR) kits.
Writing on his Facebook page, Secretary General of the Movement for Democratic Change, Douglas Mwonzora said NERA had agreed to go into the streets countrywide in protest of government’s decision to grab the BVR procurement from ZEC and UNDP.
“The move by the government to hijack the BVR kits procurement process marks the commencement of an elaborate vote rigging system by the government and Zanu PF. It comes as a result by Mugabe and all his possible successors that they cannot win the 2018 elections. Therefore, as usual they want to circumvent the will of the people.
“NERA has set the 22nd of March as the date for the massive demonstration against the decision by the government to take over the BVR kits procurement process,” wrote Mwonzora.
He accused Zanu PF of wanting to test people adding that if they succeed in this plan, they may continue to introduce measures that make the electoral field tilted in their favor.
“Clearly, Zanu PF and its corrupt state machinery is testing the people’s resolve through this blatant display of disrespect and base arrogance. If they succeed in this sordid move they will introduce more measures to ensure that the electoral system is as opaque as possible,” he said.
In an interview with 263Chat, Mwonzora said that they are expecting more than 20 000 people including 12 civic organisations to be part of the mega demonstrations.
