HARARE – MDC Alliance president Nelson Chamisa will this Sunday embark on nationwide rallies to thank his supporters for voting overwhelming for him and advise them on the way forward.
Ironically, Chamisa’s rallies come at a time when president Emmerson Mnangagwa is also lining up countrywide tours to thank the people for voting for him and Zanu PF in the July 30 harmonised elections.
Speaking to the Daily News yesterday, Chamisa’s spokesperson Nkululeko Sibanda said his boss will address his first rally in Kwekwe.
“The president is going to address the people of Zimbabwe, thanking them for overwhelmingly voting him. We were the first to apply to the police but after that I heard Mnangagwa is also having rallies and from that you know who the president is. The organising department is still doing the president’s itinerary but the president will address people in every corner of Zimbabwe,” Sibanda said.
The rallies come after the Constitutional Court unanimously upheld Mnangagwa’s July 30 election victory and threw out Chamisa’s petition that had sought to overturn the result.
However, after the court verdict the youthful opposition leader refused to accept Mnangagwa’s victory, insisting that he was the legitimate winner of the tightly-contested presidential plebiscite.
Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa has reportedly lined up nationwide “thank you” tours after being voted the country’s president in the just ended disputed polls.
According to the state-owned Herald newspaper, Mnangagwa is also going to use the thank you tours to outline his government programme on decentralisation of power.
“We are going to have rallies in your respective areas to thank the people for voting me into power. We will be saying the message of peace that we have been saying all along and we will also announce the plans we have to improve provincial economies because we do not want everything to be centred in Harare,” Mnangagwa was quoted as saying.
The president made his announcement as he gave at least 90 cars to traditional chiefs, as part of his government plans in improving their welfare, said the report.
According to New Zimbabwe.com, the government had promised to give traditional leaders at least 226 cars last year.
More than 50 of the vehicle had previous been distributed to the chiefs last November, and the latest batch had been bought before the southern African country’s watershed polls last month.
Mnangagwa told the chiefs that the cars were not handed over to them before the polls for fear of being accused of vote buying.
Mnangagwa was officially sworn-in as president on Sunday after a constitutional court ruling backed his election.
