-berates ZEC nomination fees
MIDWEEK REPORTER
MASVINGO-New political outfit Zvido Zvevanhu People’s Party (ZZPP) which is having its presence felt in the social media has vowed to field candidates in all the 210 constituencies in the country including senators and women’s quota.
ZZPP president, Godfrey Matadi told The Midweek Watch that they have the finacial muscle to take on ruling party Zanu PF and the biggest opposition, Citizens Coalition for Change in the mid-year crunch harmonised elections.
“”We are going to field candidates in all constituencies. And we call upon vana veZimbabwe to support us as we are the only party which can negotiate to have the sanctions removed that have crippled our country Zimbabwe.
“We are a new party and not aligned to any political party therefore we are not tainted by the past. The sanctions we have as a country are because of Zanu PF, once Zanu PF is out of power, Zimbabwe will be free again.
“We have a foreign policy that respects the rights of other countries’ choices, rule of law, respect for human rights as the United Nations Charter proclaims. We believe nobody is above the law. We respect the Supreme law of Zimbabwe which is a fundamental key to any prosperous nation,” said the exuberant Matadi.
In August last year the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission gazetted nomination fees to be paid by candidates to participate in the forthcoming harmonised elections where the presidential candidate will part ways with US$20 000, each parliamentary candidate will fork out US$1000 and for 10 senators and 10 women’s quota per province the party will pay US$2 000 per province. This therefore means a party has to have in excess of US$300 000 a figure that most political parties said was exorbitant and will limit their participation in the crunch elections due mid this year.
“The fees are unconstitutional and democracy is not for sale. We will not allow ourselves to be hindered from participating in elections because of individuals who want to remain in power for their personal gain. Fees should be affordable for everyone to participate in a free and fair election. We will not allow money to control democracy. We do not want a one-party state in Zimbabwe, so we are going to take part in the elections whether they want or do not want,” said Matadi.
On the new boundaries and constituencies that were created through the recent delimitation exercise by ZEC, Matadi said the whole document was shambolic and must be revised.
“The whole document is full of errors. It’s shambolic. ZEC as an independent organisation has failed Zimbabweans big time. We call upon the body to go back to the drawing board and come up with something that is acceptable to all the stakeholders, however that will not make us lose focus, we will be focused on the ball despite attempts to distract our attention,” added the ZZPP youthful leader who is based in the UK.
