MDC Alliance Presidential candidate, Nelson Chamisa is heading for a showdown with the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) and the ruling Zanu PF should a peaceful dialogue scheduled for this week fail to establish consensus.
The MDC Alliance has raised red flags over a plethora of issues chief among them ballot papers printing.
Briefing the media at his party headquarters today, Chamisa said he intends to meet with ZEC chairperson Priscilla Chigumba, President Emmerson Mnangagwa and other contestants to iron out ballot paper standoff among other anomalies bedevilling preparations for the do or die plebiscite.
Chamisa who is due to The Elders led by United Nations former Secretary General, Kofi Annan on Friday, revealing that African Union and SADC will be urgently engaged to intervene on contentious issues ahead of polls.
“We are also escalating this matter to SADC, in fact we are writing to SADC to request an extra ordinary summit of SADC to then deal with this stalemate and this dispute. Because as far as we are concerned this is a dispute, we have a dispute, we have a stalemate we have a crisis.
“We cannot possible have an election if we do not know where the ballot paper is, who has printed the ballot paper, the quality of the ballot paper.
“I have no evidence that the ballot paper was printed in Zimbabwe, I wish I had any, but I have no evidence that the ballot paper was actual printed in Zimbabwe and that makes it a very serious issue,” added Chamisa.
The second option for the way forward Chamisa said he has requested an urgent meeting with the ZEC boss Justice Priscilla Chigumba and other commissioners to peacefully reach a common ground on electoral processes.
“In the interested of dialogue I have sent and dispatched a team to request an extra ordinary meeting which I have always requested but not acceded to with the ZEC chairperson, as a candidate on behalf of the Alliance, on behalf of the candidates who have also registered as parliamentarians and councilors those I represent in terms of requiring certain information on the voting process”.
Chamisa added that in the event Chigumba refused to meet with him plans are under way to schedule an urgent meeting with the multi -party liaison committee to address concerns on voting processes charging that he will not participate in a pre-determined election evidenced by lack of transparency on ballot paper and voter’s roll.
“We will not be frog marched into a farce of an election, we don’t want to go into a fiction, a predetermined movie, it’s a betrayal to those that died for one man one vote.”
He further highlighted that all Alliance structures are high alert to mobilize the masses to take the directions announced by their leaders.
