Zimbabwe: 'If We Are Not Careful, Zimbabwe Will Become a Mono State' - Mwonzora Calls for Opposition Unity Following Defeat in Epworth By-Election

Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Douglas Mwonzora has stressed the importance of unity among opposition parties in Zimbabwe, urging them to work together to reverse the trend of poor electoral performance.

His remarks follow the recently held Epworth ward 6by-election, where the ruling party Zanu PF's candidate Civilised Bushe secured 3,022 votes, beating MDC-T's Alice Nyahunzvi, who managed just 120 votes. Independent candidate Peter Nyapetwa received only 23 votes. The main opposition party, Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), did not participate in the by-election.

Mwonzora, who boycotted the 2023 presidential elections, surprisingly fielded a candidate in Epworth who performed poorly, triggering widespread criticism from opposition supporters.

Speaking in an X space on Wednesday, Mwonzora said the by-election was a test to assess whether the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) had implemented electoral reforms.

"ZEC produced a document called a strategy towards free and fair elections, so we decided to test ZEC's attempted electoral reforms empirically. ZEC failed dismally in the test.

"There was rampant vote buying, as Epworth residents were being given food hampers on election day. We have video evidence of that. People were receiving EcoCash and being told to vote for Zanu PF.

"They also received threats from Zanu PF and were told that if they voted for the MDC, the 16,000 houses in Epworth would be destroyed.

"We, the MDC party, were given a soft copy of the voters' roll, but it would not open. We made a formal complaint to ZEC, which did nothing about it," Mwonzora said.

Mwonzora urged other opposition parties to unite against Zanu PF instead of mocking him for losing the by-election.

"The poor performance is not confined to the MDC; it is a trend, and as the opposition, we must work to change it.

"There is a need to bury the hatchet. As we have seen, there is no winner in a losing team. We need to work together. If we are not careful, Zimbabwe will become a mono-state.

"Yes, we may want to score political points by mocking the MDC, which lost only one by-election, yet other opposition parties lost 45," Mwonzora said.

Read the original article on New Zimbabwe.