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MDC press statement on the latest political developments in Zimbabwe
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
July 20, 2011

The MDC's Standing Committee met today to review the Zimbabwe election roadmap's timelines as agreed by the negotiators. Although there was agreement on some issues, there was clearly no agreement on fundamental issues.

It is the belief of the MDC that the current political arrangement must end with a free, fair and credible election. What this means is that there must be an immediate end to all state - sponsored violence. There must not be any interference by security forces with the electoral process.

Importantly, the board that must run the elections, the Zimbabwe Election Commission, must be impartial. It must be staffed by fresh staff recruited by the commission itself.

Because of the pronouncements that have previously been made by the so-called securocrats the heads of the security forces must issue a statement in which they unequivocally uphold the Constitution of the country and unconditional respect for the winner of the coming election.

The state security agents in the form of the CIO must be governed by a statute agreed to by all the parties. This statute must govern the operations of the CIO.

The MDC further demands that there be SADC and African monitors to this election six months before and six months after the election.

We notice with displeasure that the election roadmap does not seek to address the fundamental issues outlined above as it leaves them as grey areas. Therefore, the agreement on the roadmap is incomplete as it does not include these very important issues.

It is therefore misleading for some people to say that the roadmap has been concluded. While we appreciate the very good efforts made by our negotiators, we believe that more has to be done in order to complete the roadmap.

We notice that Zanu PF has started denigrating the office of the chairperson of ZEC through its hired so called analysts. We view this as an attempt to undermine the independence of ZEC. While Zanu PF criticises the chairperson, it says nothing about some members of the commission like Joyce Kazembe who are card carrying members of Zanu PF. These are the people who must be removed from the commission because they compromise its impartiality.

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