These parties are the MDC led by Dr. Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC led by Professor Welshman Ncube and Zanu PF. The workshop was also attended by two commissioners from ZEC and other representatives including facilitators and officials from the Embassy of Switzerland in Zimbabwe.
The main purpose of this high–level workshop was to discuss and eventually structure a code of conduct that will be adopted for use by political parties and other stakeholders such as traditional leaders, members of the security services, public servants and civil society during the 2018 harmonised elections.
The workshop was extremely successful in that it managed to afford an opportunity to political parties and ZEC to thoroughly discuss and develop a document that will guide all stakeholders before, during and immediately after polling in 2018.The holding of a free, fair and credible election in 2018 is essential in bringing political stability and socio –economic development to our great nation.
After three days of very intense deliberations and discussions, a draft code of conduct was adopted which will now be relayed to our various political leaders and other relevant stakeholders for fine -tuning before its eventual adoption.
We are thoroughly confident that this historic workshop helped to unlock the deep – seated suspicions that existed between ZEC and various political players in Zimbabwe. The discussions were very robust, candid and frank. The MDC delegation, led by Secretary – General Douglas Mwonzora, managed to fully unpack and put across our various concerns regarding what should be contained in the code of conduct. We are pretty confident that the final code of conduct will largely speak to the far–reaching submissions and suggestions that were fervently put across by our party delegation.
In the interim, we note that ZEC has announced the arrival in the country of the remaining 2600 BVR kits. We trust that ZEC shall be able, as per their promise, to roll out a massive nationwide mobile BVR exercise starting early next month.
The MDC, once again, calls upon all its supporters, including all eligible Zimbabweans, to make sure that they register to vote during the ongoing voter registration exercise. As a party, we are confident that we should be able to register 5 million of our supporters as voters. Only a decisive and massive voter turnout will ensure the crushing and humiliating defeat of Zanu PF at next year’s elections.
The code of conduct shall very soon be officially launched and it is our sincerest belief that all political players and other relevant stakeholders will strictly adhere to and comply with the full letter and spirit of the code of conduct.
Going forward, the MDC shall maintain its vigilance and thus, ensure that we constantly engage ZEC and other stakeholders as we strive to create a conducive atmosphere for the holding of free and fair elections in 2018.
MDC: Equal Opportunities for All
Obert Chaurura Gutu
MDC National Spokesperson
Will the code of conduct stop vote rigging in any way? No! So why bother!