By Tafadzwa Chigandiwa
Newly formed Zimbabwe Electoral Reforms Organization (ZERO) has promised all Zimbabwean citizens including those in the diaspora, a peaceful election in 2023.
Speaking at a press conference held at Media Centre in Harare, Friday, Zero National Chairman, Jossam Chimbalanga said their agenda is to provide hope, confidence and assurance to citizens in times of elections.
He also revealed that their strategy is to engage government through the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to put in place the country’s electoral reforms in order to witness next peaceful elections in 2023.
“As we launch ZERO today, we want to inform you that the organization was formed with a mandate of help pushing the implementation of Zimbabwe electoral reforms to allow, free credible and fair elections in 2023 and beyond,” he said.
Chimbalanga added that Zero is not politically affiliated to any political party. He pointed out that its purpose is to unite all stakeholders including the electoral body, political parties and the diaspora community.
The organization’s national chairman urged citizens to confidently register for the much anticipated 2023 elections.
His emphasizes was that ZERO will deal with all the vote rigging which has reportedly loomed country to present day Zimbabwe.
Chimbalanga figured rigging as the reason why more than half of the population deem voting in Zimbabwe as useless.
He unfolded that in a population estimated to have 15 million people, in 2018 only 5.6 million people turned out for voting while nearly close to 10 million people boycotted the election.
Meanwhile, this week ZEC announced a lift on the ban of selective electoral activities as a result of government’s action to easy the lockdown in the start of March.
Voter registration and some of the filed work were exempted starting from 1 April, though the commission indicated that by-elections will remain banned till further notice.
