A Zimbabwean businesswoman, Elizabeth Valerio, has launched an opposition party saying the local and international community should take a proactive role in ensuring that the 2023 harmonized elections are free, fair and credible.
Officially launching the party in Harare today, Valerio, who is the interim president of the United Zimbabwe Alliance (UZA), said she is confident of victory in the 2023 elections and the forthcoming council and parliamentary by-election in which her party has fielded four candidates.
She said her party would set up 30 companies in various sectors of the economy before the next elections.
"The United Zimbabwe Alliance is a citizens’ engagement platform. It brings all Zimbabweans together for the purpose of building our country, building our communities. No one is coming to save us. The people know what we want. We know the work that has to be done. We have the capacity to do it. Only Zimbabweans can build Zimbabwe. United Zimbabwe Alliance as a citizens’ engagement platform comes at a time when there is no other political party with an agenda that is genuinely for the people of Zimbabwe."
Some ordinary people have welcomed the party's stance on rebuilding Zimbabwe before it is even elected into office.
But some analysts say there are too many political parties in Zimbabwe that normally split votes in critical national elections.
A large number of opposition parties participated in the 2018 general elections, which also featured 23 presidential candidates.