The other issue I wish to raise about elections is the issue of registration slips. We have a problem in our communities and I do not know if other Hon. Members are experiencing that especially those that are in Harare. I can talk about Harare because that is what I know. We have a group of people that are moving door to door demanding registration slips. I am told it is happening everywhere. Their names, identity numbers and their house numbers are taken down. That in itself is intimidation. I do not know who is behind this but I know it is happening in Mabvuku. Last week I was called by members in my Constituency when a group of young men was walking around collecting these voter registration slips. I confronted them and asked why they were collecting these voter registration slips and they threatened to beat me up. I told them that if they try to get violent with me, I would beat them so hard that they would give up their Zimbabwean citizenship. How many people are endowed with the power to protect themselves like me? They are not so many. So, there is a lot of intimidation before the elections. People are being intimidated into submitting their voter registration slips.
There is also this issue of vote buying. The rice that is being given by the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare is used for purposes of vote buying. This was done using the rice that came to Mabvuku. People were told to bring their voter registration slips and you must be a member of this particular party for you to be able to get the rice. Rice which is for social welfare must not be distributed through political structures. Whatever comes from social welfare must be distributed using Government structures that exist in our constituencies and not using political party structures. That is vote buying and people who are doing that must be disqualified.
The other issue is that we cannot pretend that everything is alright and try to get into this election when there is POSA and AIPPA. POSA must be amended. AIPPA must be amended or scrapped totally. POSA is a piece of legislation that was used during the years of the liberation struggle. It was adopted by this Government 37 years ago and they are still using it. Why are they still holding to the relics of colonialism? POSA and AIPPA must go. People must be able to access information. Journalists must be able to access information pertaining to elections. They must be able to get this information before the election, during the election and after the election.
I want to go to the issue of BVR. The voters’ roll that has been produced must be open for inspection by political parties. These political parties must satisfy themselves that this voters’ roll is a voters’ roll that we are able to get into an election with and the election must be free, fair and credible. If some of those things that I have said here are not implemented, some of the biggest political parties in this country – I was listening to my President Advocate Chamisa addressing a rally in Chinhoyi and I quote ‘if some of these issues are not attended to, he might not even want to get into that election’ because he is not going to get into an election. Actually, the Government needs the participation of MDC-T in this election than MDC needs the participation of the Government. If the President of the MDC-T refuses to participate in this election, this election will be a farce and the international community will not recognise it.
The President of this country has two problems. He has the problem of legitimacy and acceptability. If he does not run this election in a free, fair and transparent manner, he will still suffer the problem of lack of legitimacy. These issues must be attended to if the President of this country must get legitimacy but in any case, come elections in 2018, the President of this country will not need legitimacy because there will be a new pair of hands running the country. With that Mr. Speaker, I rest my case. I thank you.
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