Eddie Cross says ZANU-PF has four factions, calls for elections without voters’ roll

Bulawayo South legislator and Movement for Democratic Change-Tsvangirai secretary for local government Eddie Cross says the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front is now completely fractured and has at least four factions.

He did not spell out the factions but added that the ruling party cannot be put back together in any sort of semblance of what it has been.

“No reconciliation is possible,” he said, adding that the opposition was equally fractured with over 30 political parties.

“Who is who in the zoo can only be determined by an election,” Cross wrote on his blog. “Major figures in the parties do not want an election because they well know that they could not win an election that is run on the basis of the SADC rules for democratic elections.”

So far the battle within ZANU-PF has been centred around two major factions, one comprising the Young Turks and popularly known as G40 and the other loyal to Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa and dubbed Lacoste.

Both factions deny any presidential ambitions claiming that they are fully behind President Robert Mugabe.

Mnangagwa seems, however, to be winning the upper hand as he has garnered the support of war veterans who have vowed that they will not entertain G40 which is allegedly behind First Lady Grace Mugabe.

War veterans have also said there should be no slogans in support of anyone besides Mugabe.

Cross says the only way forward is to have internationally supervised elections without a voters’ roll and as soon as possible.

He said ZANU-PF is quite aware that it cannot win a free and fair election and is therefore strengthening its defences against the MDC.

“The Voters Roll is still under military control and is managed, not by the Electoral Commission as provided in the constitution, but by a secretive company called NICOV from Israel,”  he said.

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