Opposition to hold "anti-rigging" protest on the 22nd of March 2017

MDC-T President Morgan Tsvangirai says that his party will take part in the protest on the 22nd of March because the ruling party wants to “steal the next election, even before that election is held.” This comes after the government took over the procurement of Biometric Voter Registration equipment from the UNDP. There is suspicion in some quarters that the government is doing this in order to be able to control who wins the tender.

Addressing the press, Tsvangirai said:

As a party, together with our colleagues in the broader democratic movement, we take great umbrage at the brazen hostile take-over of the electoral process by a political party when such work is solely reposed in an independent Commission. The party’s national executive has just met and I wish to restate its resolution that as a party, we will utilize all legitimate and constitutionally permissible avenues at our disposal to stop this daylight theft. Whether in the courts or in the streets, we shall fight all attempts to steal the next election and we fully endorse the resolution that we took with others under the banner of NERA to mobilize Zimbabweans for a public protest on the 22nd of March!

More: Read the full statement here