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*Chamisa Meets SADC’s Electoral Advisory Council*

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Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) leader Nelson Chamisa on Friday held a meeting with Likhwa Dlamini from SADC’s Electoral Advisory Council where they discussed a number of electoral issues.

The SADC’s Electoral Advisory Council also met the governing ZANU PF, other political parties, civil society, and the media.

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Chamisa spent over three hours with the SADC delegation where he pleaded with the regional body to push the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to release the voters’ roll. Speaking after the meeting, Chamisa said:

> We have been crying and we continue to cry. We are not in agreement on the issues of the voters’ roll and we are sharing this with our colleagues in SADC.

> We would want a credible voters’ roll in Zimbabwe.

> The voters’ roll must be public, available, analysable and in a searchable format.

> We should be able to audit that roll so that we are satisfied as it is a critical ingredient in order to have free and fair elections.

> We have prepared our document, the pre-election pact on elections and we made our humble view known to SADC that we would want to have a political agreement and a political dialogue before elections by all political players in the country.

Chamisa also implored SADC to intervene in the arrest of CCC’s vice chairman Job Sikhala, who has been in detention since June 2022 on “trumped up charges” according to the opposition party.

Also speaking after the meeting, Dlamini said Zimbabwe has always been violating the SADC principles and guidelines for elections and this should not be allowed to continue. Said Dlamini:

> SADC is there to assess the likelihood of such incidents recurring, but our report does not address such issues and if they keep on recurring, there are other senior structures that deal with such issues.

> But SADC will not sit down and watch this continue.

> We are not going to use force or push through the throat everything that we think of.

> We are going to do it in a way that would make us remain brothers and sisters.

> Our presence here is to do an assessment and detect issues, which I think are of concern, and then assist.

> We will prepare a report as soon as we finish this mission and submit it to the chairperson of the ministerial committee of the organ and then it becomes a public document.

Zimbabwe has a history of disputed elections, particularly since the formation of the MDC in 1999.

The country last held general elections in 2018 and half a dozen people were shot dead by soldiers on 1 August as they protested against alleged rigging.

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