By Staff Reporter
Speaking to members of the press, LEAD President Linda Masarira said the just ended elections were not free and fair adding that they were not credible as she piled a myriad blame on Zimbabwe Electoral Commission.
LEAD had its members participating in the just ended elections including Linda Masarira and the Spokesperson for the party.
“The elections were not free, neither were they fair nor credible because the responsibile institution short-changed both the voter and political players.”
Masarira sited a number of irregularities committed by ZEC and these include transparency and accountability on the participating candidates, political violence and use of polarised staff among others issues.
We would like to congratulate all those who won in the by elections and encourage them to work hard to represent the people at local authority and legislative level.
We are concerned with the low voter turn out during the by elections and the numerous ZEC irregularities during the pre- election period. ZEC failed to disseminate key and critical information to candidates and Chief Election Agents in real time, handle and resolve issues of political violence.”
“They failed to use the multiparty liason committees effectively to deal with electoral disputes fairly, to be transparent and accountable to participating candidates.ZEC really needs to reform and have professional non-polarised staff working courteously with all stakeholders.”
Amid all this LEAD accepted the outcome of the results despite the irregularities sited.
“From LEAD, we accepted the results even though the pre- electoral period was marred by a lot of irregularities.”
