HARARE – The Zimbabwe Elections Support Network (ZESN) has dismissed the claims insinuating that it is working in cahoots with the newly formed Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) to destabilize the country’s electoral processes.
ZESN says in a public statement that it does not harbor ambitions to cause electoral chaos or have any links with the CCC, as claimed by Zanu PF in its Central Committee report during the just-ended ruling party’s congress held in Harare.
“ZESN emphatically denies any links with the CCC or working with the CCC to conduct a parallel voter tabulation exercise.”
“ZESN does not promote insurgency, does not and has never mobilized the electorate to participate in any form of violence as this defeats its numerous calls to end violence in elections in line with provisions on the holding of peaceful, free, fair, and credible elections contained in the Constitution of Zimbabwe,” reads part of the statement.
said ZESN
The elections network organization said the announcement of election results is the Constitutional mandate for ZEC.
“The network would like to put it on record that it has never and will not announce its tally of results. “We observe the provisions of Section 66A of the Electoral Act on results announcement, which gives only ZEC the mandate to declare election results,” said ZESN.
said ZESN
It says the network is apolitical and does not promote the cause of any political party nor recruit from political parties as its mandate is to promote the conduct of peaceful democratic elections in Zimbabwe.
ZESN urged the Government and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to view the role of civic society organizations in election observation as a confidence building way to encourage citizen’s participation in electoral processes as enshrined in the constitution of Zimbabwe.
The ZESN statement comes after media reports which quoted Zanu PF Central Committee report alleging that the organization is planning to conduct a parallel voter tabulation and deploy CCC activists and cause violence protests if ZEC announces different results that do not tally with the ones send to command centers established by the CCC.
It is alleged in the ZANU PF Central Committee report that “the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN, and the Election Resource Centre, ERC 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 double as Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) agents, who will send results to their established command centers and have consolidated results before ZEC announces.
If ZEC announces what is different from what they have, they are planning to start violent protests. This plan is a recipe for chaos and a serious security threat .The same organizations are sponsoring the Defend Your vote operation where all CCC members will vote and remain at polling stations until results are announced, and awaiting further instructions from their leadership”.
