Contrary to recent years of polls, the Zimbabwean government has resolved to permit opposition party candidates to air their views and campaign on national radio and television.

Surprisingly, ZBH is calling on political parties and independent candidates to take advantage of the political broadcasting time being made available to them and to notify its news service of their rallies and meetings.

ZBH chief executive, Henry Muradzikwa says with 17 political parties and more than a hundred independent candidates participating in the election, it will obviously not be possible to cover every single political meeting or rally that takes place.

“However, every party and independent candidate will be given the opportunity to make a political broadcast in which they can put across to the public their manifesto or policies,” he said.

With presidential, House of Assembly, Senatorial and local government elections all scheduled for March 29, campaigns are now in full swing in Zimbabwe.

The political broadcasts, catering for ZANU PF, the MDC and independent candidates began on Monday this week and are aired everyday in the late afternoon and evening and are repeated the following morning. Political parties have also been given the opportunity to participate in discussion programmes.

In recent polls, Mugabe’s government has used the state-owned media, mainly ZBH to attack and de-campaign the opposition, whilst not giving them a chance to communicate with the masses using the same media.

ZBH indicates in its endeavour to provide widespread news coverage of the campaigns of various political parties and independent candidates, this development provides the national broadcaster with a major challenger.

“Normal programming schedules are expected to be disrupted by the need to accommodate the election broadcasts.”

“Where news coverage is concerned, it is up to the political parties and candidates to inform the broadcaster of election events that they would like to be covered by ZBH. I urge all of them to do this,” said Muradzikwa.

There are 17 political parties and 125 independent candidates contesting the parliamentary elections.

There are also two independent candidates contesting the presidential election namely; Simba Makoni and Langton Towungana, and two political party candidates, Mugabe of ZANU PF and Morgan Tsvangirai of the MDC.

Muradzikwa said ZBH news crews will do their best to cover such events, bearing in mind that there may often be limitations as far as manpower, transport, cameras and other resources are concerned.

“In other words there is a limit to how many places our news crews can be in at the same time.”

“Those wanting news coverage should also bear in mind, in the light of limited resources and broadcast time, that decisions have to be made on which events to cover and what to broadcast on news bulletins, and the newsworthiness of an event,” he said.

In his rallies, mainly aired on radio and TV, Mugabe has never ceased to verbally attack his opponents entailing former finance minister, Simba Makoni and Morgan Tsvangirai, not excluding US president George Bush and Gordon Brown of Britain..

Muradzikwa concludes as the national broadcaster, we are doing our best to ensure that our listeners and viewers are exposed to the differing viewpoints and electoral platforms of the various political parties and independent candidates contesting the elections, to enable them to make an informed decision when they go to the polls.

---

Share This Story On:

Average user rating

Display 1 of 1 comments