Zanu PF Chief Whip Pupurai Togarepi has called out MDC leader Douglas Mwonzora for straying into a massive political "offside," accusing him of rank hypocrisy and double standards over his sudden demand for a secret ballot on the upcoming Constitutional Amendment Bill No. 3 (CAB3).
According to Togarepi, Mwonzora's position is completely out of bounds given his past legislative behavior. The ruling party chief whip blasted the opposition figure for trying to change the rules of the game now, despite enthusiastically participating in the passage of Constitutional Amendment No. 2 without ever whispering a demand for a secret vote.
“Mwonzora is the last person who should lecture anyone about voting procedures," Togarepi fumed. "He sat in the House during Constitutional Amendment No. 2 and never raised the issue of secret voting. Not once. We were together during that time, and he was very happy not to use a secret voting process."
Togarepi argued that Mwonzora's sudden tactical shift has nothing to do with democratic principles and everything to do with personal survival.
“He cannot rewrite history today simply because it suits his fading political relevance. This is shameless hypocrisy of the highest order,” Togarepi said.
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Defending the current legislative process, Togarepi maintained that Parliament’s standing rules have always favored open voting to promote transparency and keep lawmakers accountable to the citizens who elected them.
“Parliament is not a hiding place," the Chief Whip insisted. "Members are elected to represent the people openly, not to conceal their positions behind secret ballots when it becomes politically convenient.”
Dismissing the MDC leader's push on CAB3 as both "desperate and laughable," Togarepi added that the public can easily see through the political maneuver.
“This sudden obsession with secret voting is nothing but a desperate attempt to seek relevance. Zimbabweans are not fools. They can see that this is a man clutching at straws. You cannot behave like this and expect to be taken seriously. Today you want secrecy, yesterday you were comfortable with openness. Which is which? This kind of flip-flopping exposes a complete lack of principle."
He must go hang with his contradictions. Parliament will not be held hostage by inconsistent and self-serving positions.”He said
The fierce backlash follows Mwonzora’s recent submission to Parliament, where he argued that a secret ballot is absolutely essential for CAB3 because lawmakers face genuine threats of intimidation and harassment given the high-stakes national interest surrounding the bill.
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