(Last Updated on July 26, 2013 by Editor)
MDC-T leader Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has raised concerns to the African Union (AU), Common Market for East and Southern Africa (Comesa) observer missions and foreign diplomats over the manner in which the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) is handling the electoral processes.
REPORT BY SENIOR REPORTER
Tsvangirai held closed-door meetings with the observers and diplomats in Harare yesterday, as the AU observer mission indicated former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, who will head its observer mission, would arrive in the country tomorrow.
The Premier’s adviser Alex Magaisa told NewsDay after the meetings that Tsvangirai had expressed concern that political parties were yet to receive a “credible copy” of the voters’ roll from the Registrar-General’s Office.
“There are a number of issues of concern, the Prime Minister raised issues to do with the voters’ roll. With less than seven days before the holding of elections, we have not yet been supplied with a credible voters’ roll that is going to be used for this election,” Magaisa said.
“Our understanding was that political parties would have been given an opportunity to have the voters’ roll, and scrutinise it before election given the crucial nature of this election. The Registrar-General’s Office has been resisting and at the moment we do not have a credible voters’ roll.”
Magaisa said Tsvangirai was also worried that Zec might not be able to conduct a credible national election as it failed to hold the special voting exercise.
“The second issue raised had to do with the special vote which, as you know, was in shambles. The whole process last week was very shambolic. A number of people were disenfranchised, they were unable to vote,” he said.