HARARE-Zimbabwe's leading opposition organization, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), called today for street demonstrations on Tuesday to demand electoral reforms in the run-up to the July 30 general elections.
'We're going to flood the streets. We want free, fair and credible elections', said the spokesman for this political formation, Tendai Biti.
According to the opposition leader, if these issues are not addressed, the prospects for a fair, free and credible vote will be a mirage in this consultation, the first after the replacement last year with the support of President Robert Mugabe's army by the current 75 years old president, Emmerson Mnangagwa.
The new head of state, who now struggles to retain his post, promised free, fair and credible elections, but the opposition rejects the military's support for the ruler and accuses him of failing to address key demands for a free and fair vote.
Mnangawa's political opponents are demanding the soldiers of the Electoral Commission be withdrawn and kept away from the election campaign.
'At every demonstration we organize, people complain about the presence of plainclothes soldiers deployed to interfere in the electoral process', said the leader of the opposition MDC, an organization that also demands external audits of the electoral roll and state media.
The government invited foreign observers; including European Union observers who have been absent from the elections for the past 16 years, to oversee the July 30 consultations, which will also appoint legislators and municipal councillors.
Mnangagwa will have 40-year-old MDC representative Nelson Chamisa as his political rival in the election contest.
Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK
