By Paul Nyathi
Civil society organisations falling under the banner of the Crisis In Zimbabwe Coalition will this week hold a demonstration in the streets of Harare demanding for President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government to set up full electoral reforms before the 2018 elections are held.
Crisis In Zimbabwe Coalition Chairman Rashid Mahiya told ZimEye.com in a statement that the demonstration which will be held on Thursday will deliver a petition to the parliament and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission amongst other institutions.
“The demonstration will target key institutions like the Parliament of Zimbabwe, the Speaker of Parliamemt, ZEC and the Ministry of Justice and Parliamentary Affairs where petitions will be submitted,” he said.
The demonstration which is expected to attract thousands of people from civil society organisations around the country will be echoing messages recently sent out by opposition political parties in calling for a free and fair election set forJuly or August this year.
According to Mahiya, the Civil Society will be protesting against parliament’s disregard of a petition presented to it by the organisations three years ago.
“The protest comes in the wake of the disregard by parliament to the civil society petition submitted three years ago through the Election Resource Centre,” he said.
The organisations will also protest against what Mahiya described as the “Proposed piecemeal reforms to the Electoral Act.”
Amongst the issues also raised by the Civil Society groups is the thorny demand for ZEC to demilitarise its staff compliment and the removal of people within the electoral body known to be directly linked to the ruling ZANU PF.
“We will also protest on the refusal by ZEC to publish a list of personnel employed by the Commission with a special interest on ensuring demilitarization of the Elections Logistics Committee and removal of ruling party functionaries from the secretariat,” he said.
The CSOs will also take swipe at the “continued partisan conduct of traditional leaders and the increasing incidences of intimidation on the electorate,” according to Mahiya
He added that after the demonstration, the Civil Society Organisations will produce a Citizens Election Charter, a Zimbabwe Civil Society Pre-Election Assessment Report and a Civil Society Roadmap to the Conduct of Credible, Free and Fair Elections under a programme called “100% feya feya” as they seek to see a free and fair election.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa has repeatedly assured that his government will this year seek to conduct a credible free and fair election.
His promise came at the back of insistances by the U.S Government that it will only be able to remove sanctions on the country only when credible elections are held.
Meanwhile, former Minister in former President Robert Mugabe’s government Jonathan Moyo is on record vowing that the ruling party will never set up electoral reforms that will see it stand a chance to lose elections.