By Deborah Harry | The challenge has always been to make every vote count in Zimbabwe – vote rigging needs addressing

First of all, congratulations to the REAL opposition in Zimbabwe and the rebrand to Citizens Coalition for Change which was desperately needed. As for the fake opposition led by that man and his small group of followers that wouldn’t fill a community hall, it’s time that we stop giving them the publicity they want by ignoring them everywhere especially on social media. We need to move on to more important things.

The main issues at hand are the preparations for the 2023. A lot of effort has been rightly put towards encouraging people to register to vote. There is also the other side of the coin that needs to be addressed which is about making sure that each vote will be counted. As an opposition we should be able to multitask between encouraging people to register to vote and putting in place a plan to make each vote count.

Both these things have to be done because one is pointless without the other one. Encouraging people to register to vote when the vote is rigged is as a path we need to avoid taking. We saw what happened in the previous elections. Voter turnout has never been a problem in Zimbabwe, most people want Zanu to go and no one with a clear heard would want ED to run their stall at a flea market let alone run a country. It’s the rigging that keeps Zanu in power and that needs to be addressed for any vote to count.

People will recognise that making each vote count is a much more challenging goal compared to a campaign to make people register to vote. Making each vote count requires that every poll station where votes are casted and counted is being monitored for voter fraud. Not only that, but in the event that voter fraud is identified, it needs to be captured on camera and publicised for the entire world to see. The tallying of all national votes by the ZEC also needs to be monitored closely and any shenanigans need to be captured on camera and publicised to the world. All these things need talent, manpower, dedication, organisation and definitely, funding.

This is the level of hard work that is needed to make every vote count. Without any safeguards against vote rigging, it’s impossible for the CCC to get anything from the 2023 election.