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Crisis Coalition respects MDC position on polls
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition
August 26, 2004

The Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition wants to categorically deny a statement on the front page of the habitual distributor of malicious and false stories, The Herald newspaper of August 26, 2004 which said that the Coalition's chairperson Brian Kagoro told the paper that the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) did not consult widely when it decided to stop participating in violent and predetermined polls that have been associated with the ZANU PF regime.

Firstly, Kagoro was never interviewed by the regime's mouthpiece and in the unlikely event that he was approached by the paper he would have told it in unequivocal terms that he was consulted and respects the position of the MDC. The legitimate position of the opposition party was long over due. Needless to say that, it is not the Coalition's mandate to determine or dictate how the opposition party does its consultation and who it consults with.

Secondly, the Coalition believes that the MDC's position is wise because the regime in Harare has refused to accept democratic principles governing free and fair elections following its drubbing in the February 2000 Constitutional Referendum.

The false story in The Herald, apart from attempting to create confusion in civil society and other democratic forces that are clear on President Robert Mugabe's misrule, it is a desperate attempt by the government to sanitise the regime's electoral madness that is in sharp contrast to the expectations of the liberation struggle where one of the fundamental ideals was to have free and fair elections in a democratic Zimbabwe.

The position taken by the MDC is crucial in that the party seeks to restore Zimbabweans' sovereign right to freely choose their leadership. That sovereign right has been stolen by the regime. For instance, the people of Harare chose their executive mayor and councillors in March 2002 but the regime has dismissed half the councillors and the mayor and appointed a bogus commission to support an illegitimate acting mayor Sekesai Makwavarara.

It is therefore naïve and incongruous to suggest that the Coalition's chairperson, Brian Kagoro would support a regime that has a track record of stealing the people's sovereignty through the administration of elections that are fraught with allegations of murder, arson and rape and oppose a legitimate position taken by a victim of stolen elections.

The Coalition believes that the only way Zimbabwe could return to the community of civilised nations is through the implementation of SADC principles on free and fair elections by overhauling the constitutional and institutional frame work governing elections in Zimbabwe and above all destroy the infrastructure of violence created the regime.

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