The ruling ZANU PF party has described its main rival the MDC Alliance coalition as being superstitious on its demands that are raising doubts on the elections set for Monday next week taking place.
In a wide ranging interview with private media at the weekend, ZANU PF Secretary for Legal Affairs Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana described the MDC’s claims that ZANU PF is intending to rig the elections using a scientific ballot paper that will see ballots move between candidates after being cast as believing in witchcraft.
“Scientifically, it has never happened anywhere. There is a level of superstition that is acceptable in the living world, but this level of superstition is completely unreasonable,” Said Mangwana.
“Votes cannot move, otherwise people can stop writing examinations if, when writing exams, answers move to another candidate. That is what they are saying and it has never happened anywhere,” quizzed Mangwana.
“…in this modern- day world you cannot base your demands on witchcraft. Basically, MDC Alliance believes in witchcraft but we are not sorcerers,” he said.
Mangwana said that the opposition party demands come as a surprise to other political parties as the parties have been meeting for the last four years to discuss the elections.
“These demands came to us as a surprise. We have been involved in interparty dialogue and I have been leading the Zanu PF team and these dialogues started almost four years ago. The three political parties represented in Parliament meet once every week and these particular demands never came to the agenda. We were actually taken by surprise.
Mangwana said that his party will win the upcoming election without any rigging as it remains popular with the electorate.
“We don’t have any fear. We have our very popular leader and we have popular policies, and we are taking Zimbabwe to the right direction and the people love our leader. We don’t fear and we don’t need to have witchcraft in order to win the elections.
We are going to win the elections on the basis of the popularity of our party, policies and leader,” he said.
On Tuesday the political parties will be going for a multi-party liaison meeting where MDC Alliance has warned that it will push through its demands for the last time failure to which the party has threatened to stop the elections from going ahead.
Mangwana, however said that there is no way the MDC Alliance will block the elections from taking place as all other parties are ready for the election.
“MDC Alliance cannot hold Zimbabwe at ransom. They don’t own Zimbabwe. They are a voluntary organisation which exists on the basis of volition. If they decide that they will not participate in the elections, it’s their choice, but we will continue with the elections,” he said.