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Nkayi Elections Debate update
Bulawayo Agenda
May 06, 2013

Close to a hundred Nkayi residents attended an Election Debate organized by Bulawayo Agenda at Nkayi Roman Catholic Church on Friday (03/05/13). The debate is part of the on-going series that brings political parties and the citizens together to discuss the political situation ahead of elections scheduled for this year. The topic for the day was centered on the country’s preparedness for elections. Qhubani Moyo (MDC), Patron Nketha (ZAPU), Kufakwezwe Ncube (MDC-T) and Moses Mkhwanazi (ZANU PF) represented their parties on the day

Below are some of the issues that came out from the meeting.

• All the representatives of political parties urged the audience to shun political violence and tolerate political differences between them.
• The two MDC formations and ZAPU emphasized the need for reforms before elections are held and they suggested that elections will be held towards the end of September while the ZANU PF representative maintained that it was up to the principals to decide on the election date.
• The MDC representative highlighted that a new constitution without meaningful reforms will be useless in ensuring that elections are free and fair.
• Qhubani Moyo indicated an early election will only result in violence because the necessary institutional reforms would have not been completed.
• Nketha argued that electoral violence has become part of the Zimbabwean political culture because his party suffered a lot during the 1980s when it was the main opposition. He called for an end to this culture.
• MDC’s Moyo bemoaned the MDC-T’s tendency to lure his party’s officials using bribes and maintained that any official found doing that will be expelled from the party.
• There were concerns from all the political parties on the manner in which the mobile voter registration exercise is being rolled out. They described the process as being “chaotic” this far.
• The issue of food distribution by ZANU PF politicians, specifically Minister of Mines, Obert Mpofu who is also MP for Umguza, was also discussed amid concerns that this is equivalent to vote buying.

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