CCC party now embroiled in another identity crisis mess
CCC leader Nelson Chamisa
NEWLY formed Citizens Coalition for Change led by firebrand politician, Nelson Chamisa faces a legal hurdle over the party’s abbreviation “CCC” and a yellow colour theme.
This follows an outcry by a fringe political formation namely Citizens Convergence for Change, which claims it has used the same acronym, CCC since inception in September last year.
In a letter to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) dated January 28, 2022, the complainant party’s secretary-general Farai Zhou, threatened to sue ZEC and Chamisa’s entity for continuing to use the abbreviation.
She said consultations were also underway to establish whether the former MDC Alliance’s new name “is not too close to our name to cause confusion to the reasonable vote”.
Lawyers T Hara and Partners are representing the complainant.
“We note that there is a new political party that you have referred to as ‘Citizens Coalition for Change’ and in your press statement, you have given them the abbreviation (CCC). While we are still consulting our lawyers regarding the question whether ‘Citizens Coalition for Change’ is too close to our name to cause confusion to the reasonable voter,” Zhou said.
“It is beyond question that there cannot be, and you cannot accept, a new political party that uses the abbreviation ‘CCC’. That abbreviation as notified to you as far back as 8 September 2021, belongs to our political party, and it is wrong for ZEC to consider that it can easily parcel it off to another party.”
Zhou alleges Chamisa and his supporters stand to benefit from the goodwill and traction of the ‘original’ CCC, which coincidentally uses blue and yellow colour themes.
“Kindly liaise with the political party and agree on a different abbreviation for them to use, which is not ours,” Zhou added.
The complainant says failure by ZEC and the Chamisa-led CCC to heed the call to adopt a variation of the acronym would attract litigation.
When contacted for comment over the matter, Chamisa ally Job Sikhala said the detractors were not worth the attention.
“Hachina basa. Handidaviri zvinhu zvisina basa (It is nothing, l don’t respond to worthless stuff),” he said.
– NewZimbabwe
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