Citizen Coalition for Change(CCC) must prioritize parliament.
By Youngerson Matete
As Zimbabwe gears up for elections, political parties have been selecting candidates who will represent them in the 2023 harmonized elections scheduled for August. ZANU-PF was the first to select its candidates through primary elections. On the 5th of April, 2023 the main opposition party, the Citizen Coalition for Change (CCC) began its process of candidate selection to choose the persons who will represent the party in the 2023 harmonized elections slated for August this year as expected.
The party will nominate candidates for President, members of parliament, councilors, youth and women’s proportional representation as well as the local government quota in a process the party claimed will be community based and citizen centric.
The candidate selection processes will be led by a citizen’s candidate independent selection panel, a committee which was assembled by the party, comprised of leaders from the civil society, business, the church, labor and student movements. This signifies a break from the old tradition of primary elections that has often been chaotic. The process often left the opposition party divided leading to fielding of double candidates; something that has resulted in the opposition losing a number of parliamentary seats.
It is however remains to be seen how the ‘consensus-based system’ will work out. Who will agree to give way to another candidate in a consensus-based system remains the biggest question thus far or will it be left to the independent candidate selection panel to decide or the party itself?
While the party has appointed an independent candidate selection panel, the commission’s conduct will be of greater interest throughout the process. The commission has been appointed as independent but will it be independent? Just like an independent adjudicator, the commission must not only be independent but it must seen to be. The commission’s independence and authority will be tested throughout the processes and the trials and tests that will come its way will not only determine its independence but also the chances of CCC winning the August general elections. By extension, the commission will also have a bearing in the democratic discourse of Zimbabwe. I will not however write much about the selection criteria but the outcome of it and the importance of prioritizing the parliament to the opposition.
A parliamentary majority for ZANU-PF will lead to further enactment of draconian laws and constitutional amendments.
Post the 2023 harmonized elections, Zimbabwe cannot afford a ZANU-PF parliamentary majority. If anything, we should learn from the past mistakes in 2018 when the opposition allowed the ruling party to win the parliamentary majority because the opposition didn’t put more focus on the parliament which was a tragic mistake. ZANU-PF has since used its parliamentary majority to enact draconian laws such as the Patriotic Act, the Cyber Security and Data Protection Act, the Maintenance of Public Order (MOPA) Act, the PVO bill as well as amending the constitution to consolidate power and shrink the democratic space.
There is no doubt that if ZANU-PF wins the parliamentary majority, it will further reverse the gains of the 2013 constitution by further shredding the constitution as it consolidates its power hence the tragic mistake of 2018 must and should be corrected this time around. As a matter of fact, the opposition election strategy must be hinged on winning the parliamentary majority or rather in a worse case scenario to dilute the ZANU-PF parliamentary majority.
Parliamentary majority necessary to run and control local authorities
The opposition party, first as the then MDC, then as the MDC-T or MDC A in the past has won most of the urban municipalities since 2000. However, the councilors have faced many challenges in providing service delivery to residents. To put it in a more abstract way, they have failed to deliver services mainly because the ruling party has been sabotaging the opposition led councils. I am however not trying to pay a blind eye on the incompetence of some of the councilors who have been forwarded by the opposition party over the years. More often though, the ruling party through the central government has played dirty politics as far as local councils are concerned.
The central government through the minister of local government, public works and national housing has used its powers which are conferred to it by the urban council’s act (Chapter 29:15) sections 313 and 314 to block council decisions and impose their own programs. In other terms, the opposition have been winning urban councils but they have not been running them. This is the reason why I believe that parliament will be critical for the opposition.
The issues of lack of service delivery can only be addressed in parliament. It is only parliament that can amend the urban and rural councils act and align it with chapter 14 of the constitution which speaks about devolution thereby giving more powers to the councils and mayors to run local authorities.
Parliamentary majority key to the necessary reforms
For a long time, the opposition and civil society have been calling for electoral, political and even economic reforms. It has been proven beyond reasonable doubt that ZANU-PF will not reform itself out of power. This is why it is important for the Citizens Coalition for Change to avoid a ZANU-PF parliamentary majority as only the opposition itself can initiate these much-needed reforms and they can only do so with numbers in parliament.
It is strategic for the opposition, Citizen Coalition for Change to take charge of the national reform agenda. It will be foolhardy for the opposition to leave the reform agenda in the hands of ZANU-PF as it has been proven beyond any reasonable doubt that ZANU-PF is not capable of reforming as this will spell their end to state power. This is why, the opposition should target to win the parliament and lead the reform agenda and building of independent and strong institution.
Parliamentary majority key to control and maintain state power
In the last harmonized elections (2018), the then MDC A under Adv Nelson Chamisa focused much on the presidential vote. They invested less effort on the parliamentary elections. The thinking behind was that the President is more important than parliament. Others argued that in 2008, we had parliamentary majority and it didn’t change anything as we didn’t have the executive power. While I don’t want to portray my view as more correct to those who think the presidency is the one that matters, I strongly disagree. I believe both executive and legislature matters for many reasons.
If the opposition wins the presidency and loose the parliament, it will not be easy for Nelson Chamisa to govern the country. For anyone to effectively govern this country there is need to reform and strengthen institutions. State institutions have been heavily captured ad infiltrated by ZANU-PF and other corrupt elements making it difficult for anyone to transform the country without necessary reforms. If the opposition have no parliamentary majority, there is no single law they will pass in parliament. A CCC government without parliamentary majority will be worse than what we currently have because they won’t be able to control unreformed state institutions. A clear example is the opposition’s dominance of local authorities.
In addition, a CCC president without a parliamentary majority can also be impeached. Nelson Chamisa will not be able to cement or protect his presidency without a parliamentary majority. This is why it is important that the opposition, Citizen Coalition for Change must also put more focus to both the presidency and parliament to protect the President in the event that they won the presidential elections. This is why, I strongly believe that focusing on the presidency and neglecting the parliament will not only be unstrategic but a political suicide if not a political tragic.
Candidate selection’s impact on voter turnout
CCC should come up with candidates that are not only popular but who can also debate meaningfully in parliament. The party should not select people who don’t contribute in parliament, who have no moral upright and who are corrupt. In the previous crop, we have had people who last spoke on swearing in day, people who were caught on several occasions sleeping in parliament and who were involved in a corrupt US$ 40 000 loan scheme.
It is also important that the Citizens Coalition for Change party select good candidates at both parliament and local authority as the quality of local candidates have a bearing on voter turnout. If the citizen coalition for change compromises on quality and popularity it will hugely affect voter turnout which will affects their chances of winning this year’s harmonized elections and gift ZANU-PF victory as citizens are fed up electing people who are hunting for jobs gone are the days when people will vote for anyone forwarded by the opposition party. People now scrutinize candidates, if they don’t offer anything meaningful people will rather stay home, a scenario that the opposition cannot afford. This can only be avoided by selecting quality and popular candidates for parliament and council.
The opposition should not only select good candidates but must also back them financially. The opposition must run a coordinated scientific campaign which combines the councilor, member of parliament and the presidential campaigns. It must move as a united and oiled machine if it is to inspire the electorate. There shouldn’t be a room for division that can lead to sabotage. It is important that CCC have a robust post-consensus healing and unification mechanism to address grievances that will arise out of candidate selection processes. They can’t be room for double candidates whether on party name or even going as independent candidates. The opposition can’t afford to divide its vote.
In conclusion, whatever comes out of the Citizens Coalition for Change nomination process will not only determine its success in the 2023 harmonized elections slated for August but will also have a bearing on the future of democracy and development in Zimbabwe. It is every progressive citizen’s prayer that the ZANU-PF parliamentary majority be diluted in this year’s harmonized elections. Another 5 years with a ZANU-PF majority in parliament will be tragic and disastrous for Zimbabwe’s democracy and development. What the opposition produce during this process will be a statement of intent or lack of it. The process and its outcome will be keenly followed by both Citizens Coalition for Change’s friends and foes. Friends will pray for the process to succeed whilst foes will fast for it to implode.
Youngerson Matete is a pro-democracy and Human Rights activist, a student of Political Science. He is the founder of Project Vote 263, a youth-led initiative to foster inclusive participatory democracy in Zimbabwe. He writes in his own capacity. His views doesn't not represents any organisation
Cell : +263 773 622 044
Email: youngmatete0@gmail.com/ director@projectvote263.org.zw
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