Zimbabwe Opposition MDC-T Leader Douglas Mwonzora Pulls Out of Presidential Race

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) has withdrawn from Zimbabwe’s August 23 presidential election, claiming that it’s impossible for the country to conduct a free, fair and credible poll.

MDC-T leader Douglas Mwonzora told journalists in Harare today that there are a lot of issues that indicate that Zanu PF is in the process of stealing the 2023 vote.

Mwonzora said, “In December 2022, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission published a delimitation report. This delimitation report was illegal and unconstitutional. It was clearly a vehicle to steal elections. On the 21^st of June, 2023, the MDC had 87 of its parliamentary candidates unfairly disqualified by the ZEC. The reason given is that they had failed to pay their nomination fees yet it was ZEC that had made it impossible for these people to pay their nomination fees. When the extension was done the following morning, MDC was excluded from benefiting from this extension. We view this as very discriminatory.

“The MDC as a law-abiding party then took this matter to court. Although election cases are urgent, our case was decided after one month and it was dismissed. What that means is that there was massive disenfranchisement in 87 constituencies as 87 of our candidates were no longer on the ballot paper. Further to that, Zanu PF has unilaterally blocked the amount that was supposed to come to the MDC for purposes of training polling agents in this election. That means that, therefore, in the 11,000 polling stations the MDC is unable to have election agents.”

He said despite clear provisions of the law that there should not be change in electoral laws during the elections, the Zimbabwean government has promulgated Amendment 140A, which seeks to regulate postal ballots in the 2023 general election.

“What is clear is that the MDC has been treated in a very discriminatory manner by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission. For that reason, after consultation with the National Council of the MDC, it was decided that we boycott this election. This presidential election is a farce, it is a shame, it is far from free and unfair. We are going to advice of the method of struggle that we are going to embark on henceforth.”

Zimbabwe Electoral Commission boss, Priscilla Chigumba, was unavailable for comment as she was said to be attending several meetings.