Zimbabwe: Nelson Chamisa to Hand-Pick Candidates for 2023 Polls

Nelson Chamisa, leader of Opposition Movement for Democratic Change (file photo).
23 February 2023

Unelected opposition CCC leader Mr Nelson Chamisa will hand-pick candidates for this year's harmonised election in yet another unpopular move that his team has slated as undemocratic.

Some in the party said Mr Chamisa's decision to forego primary elections confirms his dictatorial tendencies and absence of internal democracy within CCC.

Speaking during a press conference in Harare yesterday, hand-picked CCC spokesperson Advocate Fadzai Mahere said their party would be hand-picking candidates.

Currently receiving a backlash for failing to come up with structures, Adv Mahere said the CCC had decided to do away with primary elections for fear of infiltration.

Further, she said (unelected leaders) will choose candidates through a consultative process that will result in consensus.

"What I wish to emphasise at this stage is that following feedback that we received about how candidates for this new movement should be selected, it was concluded based on what the citizens fed back to us. Citizens want to be able to select their candidates for themselves, something we have dubbed community consensus candidate selection processes.

"At the appropriate time it is going to be launched so that every community will be able to know how they will be able to plug in but what I can assure you is, it's a watertight process that will ensure that your voices are heard and that will guard against security matters."

The revelation comes as some aspiring candidates have reportedly already imposed themselves in constituencies.

Last year, the party's secretary-general Charlton Hwende and vice-president Professor Welshman Ncube separately signed nomination court papers for their respective preferred candidates.

The party, which was formed last year, continues to adopt a trail of undemocratic practices and has been accused of failing the test of candidate selection, which is a universal democratic practice.

AllAfrica publishes around 500 reports a day from more than 100 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.

Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. To address comments or complaints, please Contact us.