WASHINGTON - Nelson Chamisa has been overwhelmingly selected by all provinces in Zimbabwe as the sole presidential candidate for the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) to contest the forthcoming poll expected sometime this year.
According to Shepherd Ngandu, spokesperson of the Citizens Candidates Independent Selection Panel, nobody challenged Chamisa for the presidential ticket.
Ngandu said, “Chamisa was nominated by all constituencies. There is no other person who was nominated by citizens in the first stage of the candidates’ selection process.”
CCC dismissed reports that citizens also nominated Harare East lawmaker, Tendai Biti, as one of the presidential candidates.
“That’s not true. Some people are creating stories in order to cause discord in CCC. It’s all lies,” said Ellen Shiriyedenga, CCC’s deputy elections director.
Biti was unreachable for comment as he was not responding to calls on his mobile phone.
Shiriyedenga said, “Our election process was well executed even though there were some problems in the initial selection process.”
CCC is conducting a Consensus Candidates’ Election process, which saw over 2,000 people being nominated to tussle for the 310 parliamentary seats and 30,000 for local government elections.
The party is now expected to start vetting names of the nominees before candidates a final list of successful candidates is made in the next two weeks.
Chamisa contested the 2018 general election and narrowly lost to President Emmerson Mnangagwa in a contested presidential poll, whose outcome was determined by the Electoral Court.
The opposition leader insists that he defeated Mnangagwa.