SOME disgruntled Zanu PF District Coordinating Committee candidates who lost recent party elections in Masvingo have said the ruling party will not garner its ambitious five million votes in the 2023 national elections.
In a petition addressed to the party’s national commissariat department, the candidates said the recently held internal polls were shambolic and were a structurally dis-functional process which could not result in any valid outcome.
They said if the national executive went on to endorse the results of the polls without addressing grievances being raised, the party will be heavily divided and will not garner its targeted five million votes nationally.
“All the contentious and questionable results from Masvingo must be nullified and made void in the best interest of protecting the party for the sole purpose of achieving the projected 5 million votes in 2023,” read the petition in part.
The losing candidates alleged massive rigging at the behest of all sitting Members of Parliament in the province.
The group cited the creation of non-existent structures which they said were created for the sole purpose of defrauding other DCC candidates who are not aligned to sitting MPs.
“We have election results not tallying with guidelines at several wards. For example, ward 8 Masvingo urban youth affairs position, leading candidate had 92 votes with the losing candidate having 6 votes, giving a total of 98 votes.
“This is definitely manifestation of election rigging since a district has 40 youth members only. Where did the other 58 youth members come from?” asked one of the losing politicians.
Jorum Gumbo, a Zanu PF bigwig who was deployed to preside over the elections in the province, said he was satisfied with the manner the elections were handled.
Gumbo said in every election, there were bound to be some people who would complain after the announcement of results.
He however admitted there were some few specific cases which they will have to investigate. – Newzim
