Church leaders have urged the government to conduct peaceful polls in the upcoming by-elections that will be held on March 26.
As the country prepares to vote, Catholic Bishops and leaders of other faiths issued a combined pastoral statement titled: The Elections We Want calling for free, fair, and peaceful elections.
The Elections We Want Statement was signed by the Archbishop of Harare, Robert Ndlovu, as head of the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference, Bishop L M Khanye of the Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC), Bishop N Muparutsa- Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe (EFZ) and Bishop P N Makamba, Union for Development of Apostolic and Zionist Churches in Zimbabwe (UDACIZA).
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) in 2020 suspended the holding of by elections in line with government COVID-19 regulations and protocols to curtail the pandemic’s spread.
However, early last month, President Emmerson Mnangagwa announced 26 March as the date for the long awaited by-elections.
The elections will fill vacancies in the National Assembly and various local authorities across the country.
In their Statement, the church leaders further urged the country’s security forces to act professionally and in a non-partisan manner to avoid loss of lives as has happened in the past.
