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From Caesar Zvayi in London, England
THE proliferation of political parties in Zimbabwe and a surge in registered voters is evidence that Zimbabweans are free to express themselves and associate with those who share their interests, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister Lieutenant-General (Retired) Dr Sibusiso Moyo has said.
At the last count, Zimbabwe had 128 political parties aiming to serenade the 5,3 million voters registered under the new biometric voter registration drive.
Briefing The Herald on the closed door meeting between Dr Moyo and chairperson of the Parliamentary Group on Zimbabwe, Ms Kate Hoey, Ambassador Chitsaka Chipaziwa said Dr Moyo told Ms Hoey that Zimbabweans were free to associate with anything that calls itself a political party, but whether some of the 128 declared parties would be alive by the time the nomination court sits was anybody’s guess.
Government, Dr Moyo said, was committed to free and fair elections, but did not conflate free and fair with an opposition victory as was the view in some quarters.
Zanu-PF, he added, would accept an opposition victory if that was the will of the people as the new dispensation, which held the view that the national interest supersedes political contestation, was not antithetical to electoral democracy.
While Zanu-PF is on record saying it will accept the will of the people, the opposition MDC-T faction led by Nelson Chamisa, however, insists it will not accept a Zanu-PF victory.
Ms Hoey, who admitted to working with the opposition, was not ill-disposed to the idea that everybody should look at the Zimbabwean political landscape with objectivity, and that Zimbabwe and Britain should not let the past prejudice the future.
She said her association with the opposition in the past did not preclude her from observing objectively the reality of developments in Zimbabwe.
leeroy