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| author/source:Zim Online (SA) |
| published:Wed 2-Feb-2005 |
| posted on this site:Wed 2-Feb-2005 |
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| Article Type : News |
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| "Newly created ZEC, headed by pro-Mugabe High Court Judge George Chiweshe, has neither staff nor even telephones" |
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Harare - Zimbabwe's main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party yesterday criticised President Robert Mugabe for setting the country's parliamentary election on March 31 saying more time was needed to prepare for a free and fair poll. The opposition party's secretary general Welshman Ncube said the poll date would virtually disable the newly created Zimbabwe Electoral Commission that should run the ballot. The commission headed by pro-Mugabe High Court Judge George Chiweshe was appointed last month. But it neither has staff nor even telephones. "The announcement of the date is a huge non-event as the repressive state machinery which militates against all democratic forces is still very much in place," Ncube said. Ncube and MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai have since late last year visited key Southern African Development Community (SADC) and European leaders pleading with them to pressurise Mugabe to reschedule the election to June to allow the country to implement regional principles and standards for democratic elections. The MDC wants far-reaching reforms to overhaul Zimbabwe's electoral laws and systems arguing that electoral changes implemented by the government so far including a new rule on one-day voting, were merely cosmetic. The opposition party has still not formally said whether it will contest the poll. The Zimbabwe Election Support Network, which monitors elections in the country, last night also said a free and fair election was impossible in the country without major changes including the repealing of security laws that inhibit the opposition from organising meetings.
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