Finance Minister Tendai Biti said on Wednesday that Zimbabwe was talking to four countries in southern Africa to plug an 89 million-dollars-funding gap for the general elections only three weeks away.

Biti refused to disclose the names of the four countries although he has previously mentioned that Zimbabwe was speaking to South Africa and Angola for possible funding for the elections.

He told a press conference that he did not want to tax the underperforming economy to raise the funds.

"We don't have the money and we can't borrow from the market which is crowded out by the 40 million that we borrowed for the constitutional referendum. We can't increase taxes," Biti said.

The total budget for Zimbabwe elections is 130 million U.S. dollars and the government has so far released 41 million dollars for voter registration and special vote set for July 14 and July 15, which allows polling officers, police, and military personnel who will be on duty on the election date to cast their votes earlier.

Zimbabweans will go to polls on July 31 to elect a new president, legislators and local government councilors. The elections will retire a four-year inclusive government formed in 2009 by President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai after disputed elections the previous year.

The two are seen as the most competitive contenders for the presidency in the upcoming election.

Zimbabwe has just recovered from a decade-long economic recession after the country dumped the inflation-crashed local currency and adopted the U.S. dollar in 2009. Though economic activity went up, largely backed by booming mining sector, the government remains cash-strapped.

Biti said he had written to the country's top leader to ensure that part of diamonds money finances the elections.

He said as at end of June 2013, diamond sales amounted to 300 million dollars and government, as a shareholder, was entitled to 150 million dollars of the proceeds.

The outspoken finance minister has previously complained about lack of transparency on diamond sales and claimed that most of the diamond money is not finding its way to treasury.

Biti, who is the secretary-general in Tsvangirai's MDC-T party, alleged Mugab's Zanu-PF was trying several tricks to rig the vote, including inflating the number of police officers who will vote early.

The Registrar-General of Voters Tobaiwa Mudede, on the other hand, dismissed the accusations and has challenged Biti's camp to prove its allegations.

Zanu-PF and the MDC-T have started election campaigning ahead of the vote. Zanu-PF launched its election campaign in Harare last Friday while the MDC-T launched theirs in the provincial town of Marondera, 70 kilometers east of Harare on Sunday. Endi

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)