Movement for Democratic Change founding president, Morgan Tsvangirai, on Thursday launched a campaign for electoral reforms in Zimbabwe, which is expected to take him on a nationwide tour.
Launching the campaign at a rally attended by hundreds of his party’s supporters in Harare’s Glen View high-density suburb, Tsvangirai said his party would push President Robert Mugabe’s government to implement electoral reforms before the MDC-T participates in future polls.
The former prime minister claimed that his party decided not to take part in the June 10 parliamentary by-elections following the expulsion of 21 lawmakers aligned to the MDC Renewal Team after realizing that Zanu PF was going to rig the polls.
The opposition party leader claimed that all previous elections were fraught with irregularities, including the alleged manipulation of the voters’ roll and related issues.
But Zanu PF political commissar Saviour Kasukuwere told Studio by phone that the MDC-T was going to lose in the by-elections because the party’s support base is dwindling.
Tsvangirai also told his supports that all Zimbabweans who possess national identity cards should be allowed to vote.
He urged Zimbabwe to introduce a biometric voting system as part of the electoral reforms and criticized the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission for failing to avail the voters’ roll to his party before the disputed 2013 national elections.
Tsvangirai alleged that the electoral commission’s secretariat was full of members of Zimbabwe’s spy network, the Central Intelligence Organization of C-I-O, and other feared organs of the state.
The former premier reiterated his call for mass action, adding that the format of the protests would be announced in due course.
Tsvangirai is expected to take his “No Reforms No Elections” campaign to Masvingo this weekend.
