ZANU PF has moved a gear up in its preparations for the August 23 harmonised elections, while electoral fraud and violent confrontations are marring the selection of Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) candidates.
ZANU PF, this week distributed election campaign material to all its candidates for the House of Assembly across all 26 constituencies in Manicaland Province.
This move underlines the intention of the party – to promote brand ZANU PF, its visibility, awareness as well as to set the pace and stay ahead of the pack.
This move complements the life-size outdoor billboards that have been erected in the past few days across major high human traffic areas across the province.
ZANU PF Manicaland provincial spokesperson, Sam Matema said: “This is part of the process and efforts towards building Team ZANU PF for the 2023 harmonised elections as articulated during the five-day long workshop that was held in Gweru last week.
“We will continue, collectively, to set the pace, stay the course and lead, anchored on a clear ideological positioning strategy against an opposition that is at sixes and sevens, confused and confusing in terms of any unique selling proposition.
“As a province, we are forever grateful to the President and First Secretary of the revolutionary party ZANU PF, President Mnangagwa, for the support thus far. We are forever indebted. We can only but pay the debt by giving him a landslide victory, and that we will deliver,” said Matema.
Meanwhile, the electoral malpractices within the CCC in Manicaland mirrors the deep seated factional fighting in the party.
The CCC embarked on a nationwide exercise to select local government candidates to represent the party last week on Saturday.
This came after President Mnangagwa’s proclamation of August 23 as the date for the harmonised elections to elect the President, National Assembly, Senate and local government representatives.
The Nomination Court will sit on Wednesday (June 21) to accept applications by candidates.
However, all is not well within the CCC as some candidates could not find their names on the list of contestants after some elements in the party’s elections coordination committee allegedly elbowed them out to pave way for their preferred candidates.
In Mutare’s Ward 13, Mr Arnold Musorowenzou’s name was removed from the contestants’ list to clear the way for the coordination committee’s preferred candidate, Mr John Mukorera.
A similar scenario was also witnessed in Mutare’s Ward 16 where the feuding parties’ confrontational approach degenerated into violence.
In Rusape, the candidate selection process was marred by confusion as a faction allegedly led by Mr Patrick Sagandira was accused of using every trick in the book to have some candidates disqualified from participating in the process.
Mr Sagandira, who is also understood to have controversially won the right to represent CCC in Makoni Central Constituency, did not want three sitting councillors – Messers Munyaradzi Chigwede (Ward Eight), Ndabanengi Mataga (Ward Three) and Peter Kwesha (Ward 10), to be elected and allegedly engineered their disqualification.
Selection did not take place in Rusape’s Wards Four, Eight and 10 as Messrs Kwesha and Chigwede as well as Ms Trinity Chidza were disqualified for allegedly busing voters from other areas.
In Ward Two, Mr Sagandira’s alleged blue-eyed boy, Mr Kuziwa Chibanda, had lorries full of people from Tandi Village, but his opponent Mr Mataga still prevailed.
There are reports that there might be a rerun in all Rusape wards after some candidates petitioned the national leadership over the rigging that allegedly took place last week on Saturday.
Interestingly, all candidates are busy processing their nomination papers ahead of the Nomination Court, a situation that could easily lead to the double fielding of candidates.
Mr Sagandira was not picking up calls when contacted for a comment.
However, CCC provincial elections coordinator, Mr Itai Masaka said: “We have not yet finished our process of selecting local authority candidates. We hope to finish by this coming weekend. We managed to do all the stages of the selection process and what is left is the announcement of candidates.”
Pestered to comment on the skirmishes that were witnessed during the selection process, Mr Masaka said: “Everything went on well. We do not have any reports of the scenes you are highlighting. In any case, we have a Grievance Handling Committee where any aggrieved candidate is free to lodge their complaint.” – Manica Post
