Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) chairperson Justice Priscilla Chigumba has revealed that 55 political parties will be contesting in the July 30 harmonised elections. This is less than half of the 133 parties which had initially registered with Zec to contest the election. The other parties were unable to field any candidates. Speaking at the routine Monday media briefing at Zec headquarters, Chigumba said,
We have 23 presidential and 1652 national assembly constituency candidates who were successfully nominated. We have a total of 55 political parties whose candidates were successful nominated. Out of our total contingent of 133 political parties, only 55 political parties had candidates who were successfully nominated.
…We are dismissing allegations that the voter’s roll released was fake. The allegations are trying to cause alarm and dispondency. The voter’s roll released by Zec is authentic and ‘analysable’.