Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) leader Nelson Chamisa on Monday said he is willing to engage ZANU PF leader President Emmerson Mnangagwa in dialogue to come up with a roadmap for the 2023 general elections.
Addressing a press conference in Harare, Chamisa said there has to be dialogue and an agreement before the 2023 elections to prevent disputes and violence. Said Chamisa:
It takes two to tango. We are saying dialogue is important around electoral conditions and the reforms that we would want to see so that we do not have another disputed election.
So even in victory, there has to be dialogue, a pre-election, post-election pact, an agreement on the nature and character of the election that we are going to have so that we agree on what happens to those who are going to win and those who are also going to help the winners.
We still are not happy with this by-election and its magnanimity in victory. We have had a landslide, but that does not move away from the fact that elections in this country need fundamental reforms around the voters’ roll, making sure that results are managed in a better way, and that polling stations are not subjected to violence and intimidation that we have seen.
Chamisa’s CCC won 19 out of the 28 National Assembly seats and the majority of council seats in the recently-held by-elections.
However, almost all of the parliamentary seats are in urban areas, the opposition’s strongholds and ZANU PF reclaimed two seats that were won by the opposition in 2018.