Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) has said it has not yet acknowledged the existence of the newly formed Citizens Convergent for Change (CCC) political party.
On Monday, a Bulawayo resident with strong Zanu-PF links, Varaidzo Musungo, wrote to Zec notifying the commission of the formation of the CCC, a name that has been widely used by opposition MDC Alliance led by Nelson Chamisa.
Zec spokesperson Joyce Kazembe said it was impossible to acknowledge receipt of CCC as a political party because it did not provide enough details upon notifying the commission of its existence. He said:
Zec does not register political parties, but it simply receives notifications upon formations of new parties.
The commission received a notification from the CCC political group, but since it was incomplete, we did not acknowledge its existence. There are no contact details such as emails or phone numbers, hence it was impossible to acknowledge receipt upon the notification of their existence.
There has been debate around the need to register political parties in Zimbabwe, with some people advocating for conditions on party registration.
Former Zec commissioner Qhubani Moyo said the biggest challenge over years was that there were no regulations that defined the registration of political parties in Zimbabwe.
Moyo said the country should copy what other countries do when a new party registers to contest elections to avoid confusion. He added:
I am told that there is also another party that has written to Zec under the name Zimbabwe Alliance for Movement Unit, and I think this is the Chamisa brigade trying also to create confusion on the name of Zanu-PF.
Moyo added that other countries demand proof of a certain number of registered members before a political party is successfully registered.
In the run-up to the 2018 polls, Zec acknowledged the existence of 123 political parties in the country with some saying the majority were proxies of the ruling party meant to divide urban votes where the opposition has been getting most of its votes.
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