Representatives of various countries have condemned the CCC for not holding primary elections ahead of the 2023 plebiscite in Zimbabwe.
On 10 March 2023, the DailyNews quoted Nelson Chamisa as having said that his party’s candidates for the elections would be chosen by “communities”.
Most diplomats expressed the view that Chamisa’s sentiments would have been comical if they were not tragic. They expressed the view that Chamisa had alienated the international community by displaying an alarming disdain for democracy.
They wondered how communities would choose candidates without elections. Chamisa has told journalists that the process to identify candidates for this year had started.
According to the CCC leader, community members will select their representatives through a “Community Consensus Candidate Selection Programme.”
An EU diplomat described Chamisa as a ‘bubbling dictator’ who had abandoned democracy. A senior African Union official based in Addis Ababa bemoaned the fact that
Chamisa had adopted Daniel Arap Moi’s ‘guided democracy’ and argued that he was a potential strong man in the ilk of Paul Biya, Paul Kagame and the like.
Senior CCC officials have also expressed fear that a ruthless, power hungry dictator is emerging. They said Chamisa was using inexperienced new members of the CCC to fulfil his ambition of being ‘more powerful’ than Robert Mugabe multiplied by three. The CCC leader is said to admire Emperor Nero, the fifth Roman Emperor who is known for his thirst for power and for ruthlessness.
A founding member of the MDC Alliance cum CCC who has now been side-lined by Chamisa observed that the CCC leader did not listen to anyone. He observed that Chamisa labels anyone who disagrees with him as an agent of ZANU PF. Chamisa has appended that label to Hopewell Chin’ono, Trevor Ncube and Professor Jonathan Moyo. The opposition veteran predicted that CCC would lose the elections because of Chamisa’s weird ways and that after elections, they would nail him at the CCC’s conference.
Source – Byo24
