Former vice president and presidential candidate for the People’s Rainbow Coalition (PRC), Joice Mujuru, has written to President Emmerson Mnangagwa waning him that he needs to demilitarize the state if the 2018 harmonised elections are to be free, fair and credible. Part of a letter written to Mnangagwa by Mujuru’s lawyers reads:
Zanu PF political commissariat and government have deployed an estimated 3 000 military officials in civilian clothes in both urban and rural communities to campaign for Zanu PF ahead of the election.
These and other security personnel deployed in various institutions including the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) should be weeded out urgently.
Our client is worried that despite your office’s pronouncements to that effect, there are no indications that since you assumed power, sufficient steps and programmes of engagement with all the necessary stakeholders has been done in order to ensure the promotion of a conducive environment for free, fair and credible elections.
However, Zanu-PF spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo rubbished Mujuru’s assertions saying:
That is nonsense, absolute hogwash. Why would we do that? We are the people’s party, we have support and strong structures that can campaign for us. The army has no business in elections. If she has deployed her army, then she can talk about that army because we have no knowledge about what she is talking about
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