Mwonzora accuses Zanu PF of denying MDC, CCC access to millions of polling agents funding

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OPPOSITION leader, Douglas Mwonzora has accused Zanu PF of blocking €3 million which is meant to equip polling agents of three political parties represented in Parliament saying it is an attempt to rig the forthcoming elections by the ruling party.

The funds are meant to train and deploy polling agents of Zanu PF, Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) and MDC in the August 23 elections.

In 2018 opposition failed to field polling agents in all voting stations leading to allegations of rigging and manipulation of election results.

Addressing the media, Tuesday in Harare Mwonzora said Zanu PF had blocked funds from being accessed by opposition parties.

“Some time ago the high level political platform secured funding for training of polling agents. The High level political platform is a platform brokered by the Zimbabwe Institute and is made up of three political parties represented in Parliament.

“These parties secured funding for the training and deployment of polling agents. It secured funding to the tune of 3 million euros that was supposed to be used in this regard. The training and deployment of polling agents is important to ensure transparency in an election.

“As you know in 2018 about 2 000 polling stations did not have MDC polling agents and we had thought we were going to cure this problem and the money was actually secured from some of the philanthropic donors. However, Zanu PF has blocked this money with the net result that the MDC and the other parties are unable to fund their political agents. This is intended to ensure that there’s opaqueness in this election,” says Mwonzora.

MDC under Nelson Chamisa in 2018 failed to produce results in the Constitutional court when they challenged the authenticity of the plebiscite, due to its failure in fielding polling agents.

In a tirade of accusations Mwonzora, who has since pulled out of the presidential race, accused Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) of potentially “sham” elections.

Mwonzora accused ZEC of victimising his party after he took the electoral body to court challenging the delimitation exercise.

“There is no doubt ladies and gentlemen that this election is not free and fair. The election management body has not displayed requisite impartiality and fairness expected of it. It has acted vindictively in a partisan manner against the MDC.

“We are boycotting this farce, we are boycotting this sham. We are boycotting this presidential election,” said Mwonzora.

–New Zimbabwe