{"id":78312,"date":"2023-05-27T18:38:12","date_gmt":"2023-05-27T16:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/interview-chamisa-slams-mnangagwas-silence-on-elections-date-proclamation"},"modified":"2023-05-27T18:38:12","modified_gmt":"2023-05-27T16:38:12","slug":"interview-chamisa-slams-mnangagwas-silence-on-elections-date-proclamation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/interview-chamisa-slams-mnangagwas-silence-on-elections-date-proclamation","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW: Chamisa slams Mnangagwa\u2019s silence on elections date proclamation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Zimbabwe. <\/strong><\/span><b>By Alois Vinga<\/b><\/p>\n<p>CITIZENS Coalition for Change (CCC) leader, Nelson Chamisa has slammed the failure to proclaim the elections date by President Emmerson Mnangagwa saying the move restricts planning ahead of the polls.<\/p>\n<p>The country\u2019s Electoral Act\u2019s section 38 empowers President Emmerson Mnangagwa to proclaim the date for harmonized elections after consultation with the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC).<\/p>\n<p>However, despite the fact that the year has already progressed well into the first half, Mnangagwa has not yet made the much awaited announcement only hinting the plebiscite will be held in August.<\/p>\n<p>Last month Mnangagwa revealed that he expects to announce the election date towards the end of May on the back of rising pressures from Civil Society Organisations and citizens.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with NewZimbabwe.com, the country\u2019s main opposition leader, Chamisa accused Mnangagwa of taking the entire nation for granted, inhibiting forward planning.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is unfair for one player to also be a referee, a match commissioner and to be the regulatory authority.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is wrong especially when everyone is put in suspense thereby making planning almost impossible. National affairs and people\u2019s lives cannot be run on ad hoc basis upon guesswork and conjecture,\u201d he said<\/p>\n<p>The opposition leader called on Mnangagwa to emulate best practices on the continent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll stakeholders have to plan ahead of time. Right now Kenyan citizens know the exact date when the elections due in 2027 are going to be held. That is good governance. Not this unilateralism where a date is used as an unfair advantage over competitors.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOthers may not be able to fully plan. A date cannot be determined by one person. The fate of a nation can\u2019t fit in one\u2019s pocket.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMr Mnangagwa is saying he is the only one who knows the date. This is unacceptable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Quizzed on whether he shares common perceptions that the Electoral Amendment Bill which is yet to be finalised is also a ploy to delay the polls, the trailblazing opposition leader said while amendments should have been completed way before, they remain key to the plebiscite.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cReforms are very important because they are a major and significant indicator of sincerity and benchmark to a legitimate, credible and free election. It is also an indicator to the world that there is a commitment to respect the will of the citizens.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo reforms are important but you see these reforms were supposed to be done much earlier, however, it is never too late to do a good thing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Challenged to reveal any plan of action should President Mnangagwa remain silent on when the elections\u2019 will be held, the opposition leader said the law will not leave room for continued silence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEveryone is in the dark, except for Mr Mnangagwa and possibly his colleagues in Zanu PF.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat is not a desirable framework. It is not conducive to the holding of a proper and credible process.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat must definitely change and the law must change on that. There is a need to make sure that there is greater predictability. More certainty in terms of these criticals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe dates are supposed to be by virtue of the Constitution and the predictability of the date is what we are emphasising on. We need to make sure that we deal with these issues as an immediate national issue and an issue of consideration,\u201d added Chamisa.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\">Zimbabwe<\/a> Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Zimbabwe. By Alois Vinga CITIZENS Coalition for Change (CCC) leader, Nelson Chamisa has slammed the failure to proclaim the elections date by President Emmerson Mnangagwa saying the move restricts planning ahead of the polls. The country\u2019s Electoral Act\u2019s section 38 empowers President Emmerson Mnangagwa to proclaim the date for harmonized elections after consultation [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":78311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,35,12,2715],"tags":[1493,2189,19],"class_list":{"0":"post-78312","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-head-lines","9":"category-homepage-english","10":"category-policy","11":"category-to-homepage","12":"tag-africa-press","13":"tag-africa-press-zimbabwe-2","14":"tag-zimbabwe"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.1 (Yoast SEO v24.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>INTERVIEW: Chamisa slams Mnangagwa\u2019s silence on elections date proclamation - zimbabwe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/interview-chamisa-slams-mnangagwas-silence-on-elections-date-proclamation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"INTERVIEW: Chamisa slams Mnangagwa\u2019s silence on elections date proclamation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Africa-Press &#8211; Zimbabwe. By Alois Vinga CITIZENS Coalition for Change (CCC) leader, Nelson Chamisa has slammed the failure to proclaim the elections date by President Emmerson Mnangagwa saying the move restricts planning ahead of the polls. The country\u2019s Electoral Act\u2019s section 38 empowers President Emmerson Mnangagwa to proclaim the date for harmonized elections after consultation [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/interview-chamisa-slams-mnangagwas-silence-on-elections-date-proclamation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"zimbabwe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-05-27T16:38:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/interview-chamisa-slams-mnangagwas-silence-on-elections-date-proclamation\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/interview-chamisa-slams-mnangagwas-silence-on-elections-date-proclamation\",\"name\":\"INTERVIEW: Chamisa slams Mnangagwa\u2019s silence on elections date proclamation - zimbabwe\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/interview-chamisa-slams-mnangagwas-silence-on-elections-date-proclamation#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/interview-chamisa-slams-mnangagwas-silence-on-elections-date-proclamation#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2023\/05\/sm_1685202373.246041.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-05-27T16:38:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-05-27T16:38:12+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#\/schema\/person\/2e02b5816e71b1149d79877f669a85e4\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/interview-chamisa-slams-mnangagwas-silence-on-elections-date-proclamation#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/interview-chamisa-slams-mnangagwas-silence-on-elections-date-proclamation\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/interview-chamisa-slams-mnangagwas-silence-on-elections-date-proclamation#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2023\/05\/sm_1685202373.246041.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2023\/05\/sm_1685202373.246041.jpg\",\"width\":768,\"height\":498,\"caption\":\"INTERVIEW: Chamisa slams Mnangagwa\u2019s silence on elections date proclamation\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/interview-chamisa-slams-mnangagwas-silence-on-elections-date-proclamation#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"INTERVIEW: Chamisa slams Mnangagwa\u2019s silence on elections date proclamation\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/\",\"name\":\"zimbabwe\",\"description\":\"\u0623\u062e\u0628\u0627\u0631 \u064a\u0648\u0645\u064a\u0629 \u0639\u0644\u0649 \u0645\u062f\u0627\u0631 \u0627\u0644\u0633\u0627\u0639\u0629\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#\/schema\/person\/2e02b5816e71b1149d79877f669a85e4\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"INTERVIEW: Chamisa slams Mnangagwa\u2019s silence on elections date proclamation - zimbabwe","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/interview-chamisa-slams-mnangagwas-silence-on-elections-date-proclamation","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"INTERVIEW: Chamisa slams Mnangagwa\u2019s silence on elections date proclamation","og_description":"Africa-Press &#8211; Zimbabwe. By Alois Vinga CITIZENS Coalition for Change (CCC) leader, Nelson Chamisa has slammed the failure to proclaim the elections date by President Emmerson Mnangagwa saying the move restricts planning ahead of the polls. The country\u2019s Electoral Act\u2019s section 38 empowers President Emmerson Mnangagwa to proclaim the date for harmonized elections after consultation [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/interview-chamisa-slams-mnangagwas-silence-on-elections-date-proclamation","og_site_name":"zimbabwe","article_published_time":"2023-05-27T16:38:12+00:00","author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/interview-chamisa-slams-mnangagwas-silence-on-elections-date-proclamation","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/interview-chamisa-slams-mnangagwas-silence-on-elections-date-proclamation","name":"INTERVIEW: Chamisa slams Mnangagwa\u2019s silence on elections date proclamation - zimbabwe","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/interview-chamisa-slams-mnangagwas-silence-on-elections-date-proclamation#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/interview-chamisa-slams-mnangagwas-silence-on-elections-date-proclamation#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2023\/05\/sm_1685202373.246041.jpg","datePublished":"2023-05-27T16:38:12+00:00","dateModified":"2023-05-27T16:38:12+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#\/schema\/person\/2e02b5816e71b1149d79877f669a85e4"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/interview-chamisa-slams-mnangagwas-silence-on-elections-date-proclamation#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/interview-chamisa-slams-mnangagwas-silence-on-elections-date-proclamation"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/interview-chamisa-slams-mnangagwas-silence-on-elections-date-proclamation#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2023\/05\/sm_1685202373.246041.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2023\/05\/sm_1685202373.246041.jpg","width":768,"height":498,"caption":"INTERVIEW: Chamisa slams Mnangagwa\u2019s silence on elections date proclamation"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/interview-chamisa-slams-mnangagwas-silence-on-elections-date-proclamation#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"INTERVIEW: Chamisa slams Mnangagwa\u2019s silence on elections date proclamation"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/","name":"zimbabwe","description":"\u0623\u062e\u0628\u0627\u0631 \u064a\u0648\u0645\u064a\u0629 \u0639\u0644\u0649 \u0645\u062f\u0627\u0631 \u0627\u0644\u0633\u0627\u0639\u0629","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#\/schema\/person\/2e02b5816e71b1149d79877f669a85e4","name":"cfeditoren"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}