The opposition Citizens Coalition for Change led by Nelson Chamisa claims that thousands of state security agents are being forced by President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government to vote for the ruling Zanu PF party through postal voting.
Fadzayi Mahere, CCC spokesperson, told journalists in Harare that the government is violating police and soldiers’ rights by arm-twisting them to vote for Zanu PF.
She said, “Our incident tracker has been awash with reports from prison officers, police officers and other security forces saying ‘we have been forced to vote under the direction supervision of our seniors’. Such a command vote is obviously unconstitutional. Everybody knows that under the electoral law, your vote is your secret. So, you can’t have your superior standing over you to check whether or not you voted for CCC. We all know Mr. Mnangagwa is on record saying that the prison officers and other security forces don’t vote well.”
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission chairperson, Priscilla Chigumba, confirmed that state security agents have started voting in a nation. She could not comment any further about this issue.
Mahere noted that the printing and distribution of ballot papers without the knowledge of all political parties is illegal.
“As far as we are concerned, this is a material breach of the electoral law and something that cannot be acceptable. ZEC as a straight institution and an administrative body have an obligation to act lawfully, visibly and fairly under Section 68 of the Constitution. That’s something that we have taken up.”
Police Commissioner Godwin Matanga has not yet responded to questions sent to him on claims by the CCC that the government is forcing police and soldiers to vote for Zanu PF.
Zimbabwe will hold council, parliamentary and presidential elections on August 23.
VOA correspondents also contributed to this article
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