ZANU PF has accused civil society organisations (CSOs) of planning to conduct a parallel tabulation of results in general elections scheduled for 2023.
According to the party’s central committee report presented at the congress, parallel tabulation of results will be a recipe for chaos especially if the results gathered by CSOs are different from those released by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC). The report reads in part:
The Zimbabwe Election Support Network and the Election Resource Centre are planning to conduct parallel voter tabulation during the 2023 harmonised elections.
In pursuit of that, they will deploy election observers at all polling stations who will also double as CCC agents.
These will send results to their established Command centres and have consolidated results before Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) announces.
If ZEC announces what is different from what they have, they are planning to have violent protests.
This plan is a recipe for chaos and mayhem as well as a serious security threat.
The central committee report also claimed that CCC was working with civil society organisations in penetrating ZANU PF’s perceived rural strongholds. It said:
In their quest to upset the ruling Zanu PF party support base, the opposition working with their Western handlers, have employed hybrid warfare, ranging from political, economic, social and cyber threats.
This has seen the opposition political party penetrating Zanu PF strongholds, particularly rural constituencies.
The main opposition outfit is using NGOs and CSOs as their agents for regime change, with Goal Zimbabwe, Danish Church Aid and Plan International being on record for handing cash handouts ranging between US$10 and US$20 per individual in high-density suburbs such as Mabvuku, Highfield and Mbare.
In essence, they are acting as the opposition commissars whose activities complement those of the opposition outfit.
ZANU PF expressed worry that social welfare issues, including service delivery if left unattended, may cost the party dearly in 2023 as happened “in 2021 whereby the opposition won some of the crucial urban by-elections despite several infrastructural development programmes done by the ruling party.” | The NewsHawks