Opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) has set the 5th of April as the day for selection of party candidates for this year’s harmonised elections.
The opposition movement said it had anchored selection process on the grassroots to give ordinary citizens the authority to select representatives of their choice.
Announcing the latest developments in Harare today, CCC secretary for elections Ian Makone said candidates will be selected under a strict criteria to avoid infiltration by rival groups.
“Community members who have signed into our data base shall be consulted to nominate their preferred representatives in each category in their respective communities. The process will be preside over by members of an Independent Candidate Selection Panel (ICSP). Nominees will be given the opportunity to either accept or decline.
“In the vent that more than one nominee comes up to a position, there is a process of consultation in the community with a second round of an interface with the community with a view of arriving at a single candidate for elected position. All nominated individuals will undergo our own internal vetting process to ascertain their suitability.
“We would not want to be given candidates by our opponents, after the vetting and validation of the nominated candidates the full list of successful candidates will then be announced and further validation undertaken before confirmation of the full list of those candidates by the National Citizen Assembly,” said Makone
Without divulging the composition, Makone said there shall be an independent committee at community level and at national level.
“We will have in charge of the whole process the Independent Candidate Selection Panel, this committee is constituted of independent eminent members of the community who shall preside over the nomination and validation process.The validation process is a very intricate and complicated one. The second is a grievance handling committee because in any process of this nature they may be someone who feel they are shortchanged and this independent Committee also of eminent members of community shall receive and handle any such grievances.
“The nomination process shall commence on the 5th of April and we will be present and undertaking this process in all the wards nationally. In the event that more than one nominee emerges from the process for any electable position the Citizens National Assembly will convene and will provide directions in terms of the next step which is mainly the consensus building process.” Makone said
He said citizens will choose candidates of their choice for the Presidency, Parliament (MPs and Senators, Councillors and Proportional representatives.
