Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) has refuted claims that they boycotted the elections for the Speaker of National Assembly, arguing that they were misled by the Clerk.
Jacob Mudenda and Tsitsi Gezi were elected to the positions of Speaker and Deputy Speaker unopposed respectively, as the opposition was not in the House.
However, in an interview, Citizens Coalition for Change national organiser Amos Chibaya said they had agreed with the Clerk that the program will start at 11am, so that they can have time to hold their party caucus.
But when they arrived at the new Parliament building they were surprised that the program was conducted at 10am instead of the agreed 11am.
‘’We informed Clerk of Parliament, who is the chief executive of Parliament, he was the one doing all the administration yesterday. We informed him that as CCC, we will first have our party caucus to choose our nominees for the positions of Speaker of Parliament and Deputy, President of Senate and Deputy.
‘’And we agreed with the Clerk Kennedy Chokuda that the election will start at 11am, but we were shocked when we arrived that they had already finished the elections before 10 am, he said.
Chibaya, indicated that had chosen candidates that were going to represent them in all the four positions that were up for grabs.
Although Citizens Coalition for Change did not field candidates in the National Assembly, they had candidates contesting in the Senate.
In the Senate Zanu PF candidate for the position of President of the Senate, Mable Chinomona polled 50 votes against Honourable Magagela of Citizens Coalition for Change who got 25 votes.
For the position of Deputy President of the Senate, Micheal Nyambuya of Zanu PF polled 49 votes against Chakabuda of Citizens Coalition for Change who got 16 votes.
Senate has 80 legislators, Zanu PF leads with 33 seats, Citizens Coalition for Change has 27 seats, there 18 Chiefs and 2 representatives of persons with disabilities.
Persons with disabilities did not nominate a candidate of their own but went with Zanu PF and CCC nominated candidates.–
