ZANU PF has failed to announce the results of its elections to choose the party’s parliamentary and council candidates for Harare, amid claims that the polls were riddled with bribery and rampant cheating, the Daily News reports.
This comes after
Harare province held its primary elections on the weekend of October 10 to 11,
following the recent recalls of eight legislators and 18 councillors by the
MDC, as well as the death of Kuwadzana East legislator Miriam Mushayi.
It also comes as the ruling party’s deadly tribal and
factional demons of yesteryear are once again wreaking havoc in the former liberation movement, as preparations
for its pending district co-ordinating committee (DCC) polls — which were
banned during the last few years in power of the late former president Robert
Mugabe — also gather steam.
Now, disgruntled ruling party members are accusing Harare
province bigwigs of ballot manipulation — claiming that the delays being experienced were meant to
protect their “favourites” who might have lost in the hotlycontested internal
polls.
Yesterday, party insiders claimed in interviews with the
Daily News that the delays in announcing the results of the primaries had
heightened tension in provincial structures — adding that the alleged levels of
rigging and vote buying were alarming, to the extent that the provincial
executive led by chairperson Godwills Masimirembwa had now resolved to approach
the national executive for help and direction.
“The issue of elections is creating more divisions in
Harare. Some candidates are not happy. They feel that the elections were not
done properly. “Some candidates were imposed and some won because of vote
buying, and all these issues are creating major problems for our party. Vote
buying and alarming rigging has marred the primary elections. In Kuwadzana, for
example, elections were abandoned on October 10 after a fight over bribery
allegations.
“There was a re-run of the primary election on Sunday. We
resolved as a province not to announce the elections until we approach our
seniors at the national headquarters,” one well-placed source told the Daily
News. While Masimirembwa confirmed that the results of the primaries had indeed
been withheld, he played down the allegations of factionalism, vote buying and
rigging.
“I am yet to come across an election where there are no
complaints. We are not delaying announcing the results. The results are given
to the provincial management committee, then to the provincial co-ordinating
committee (PCC), and we will then forward them to the commissariat department.
After that they will be available to the media.
“We are going to forward them to the commissariat. Tomorrow
(today) we are going to have a meeting. Our last primary elections were in
Kuwadzana yesterday (Sunday),” Masimirembwa told the Daily News.
However, the results of previous Zanu PF elections were
announced promptly after polls closed and counting had been concluded.
Masimirembwa, insiders said, was now consulting party bigwigs on how to move
forward — following the alleged irregularities in the internal elections.
In the run-up to the primaries, senior officials engaged in
ugly spats and accused each other of belonging to different factions. This
comes as Zanu PF was forced to postpone the Kuwadzana East primaries on October
10, after violence erupted in the constituency because some candidates
allegedly distributed money to party members — who ended up fighting for the
cash being doled out.
“There were running battles here in Kuwadzana as people
fought over money which was being splashed by (name supplied but withheld)
using runners. Voters were put into groups of 10 with one of them tasked with
distributing the money. Trouble started when those who were handling the money
in some of the groups did not give it
out,” a party insider told the Daily News last week.
Yesterday, Harare provincial commissar Kudakwashe Damson
declined to comment on the developments. “Get in touch with the chairman
(Masimirembwa) … but what I can tell you is that we are done with the issue of
primary elections.
“The only person who can speak about the results is the
chairperson,” Damson said. In the build-up to the contentious polls, Damson
told the Daily News that the ruling party had received numerous complaints from
candidates.
“We are not ready to release the results of the elections
because we have received several complaints from candidates who are alleging
that the elections were not fair,” he said.
Just a few days before primary elections, Damson accused
provincial women’s chairperson Betty Kaseke of disappearing with the party’s
voters’ roll — amid claims that she allegedly intended to manipulate structures
in the Kuwadzana East constituency.
Kaseke denied the allegations. Damson also claimed then
that Zanu PF bigwigs were aware of alleged land barons and remnants of the
ruling party’s vanquished G40 faction who were using “dirty money” to buy the
support of party structures to either become MPs or have their proxies win the
elections.
“Regarding land barons, we have disqualified those that we
know, including our Zone 1 district co-ordinating committee secretary Ignatius
Nyakweta, because we know he has a case before the courts over land issues.
“The same also applies to Phillip Guyo, our shadow MP for
St Mary’s and Bonface Manyonganise. All of them wanted to be candidates for St
Mary’s constituency. But we said we cannot take such a risk because they can be
arrested any time.
“The problem is all over the province, especially in St
Mary’s, Epworth, Harare Central and other areas where land barons have either
presented themselves for election or are sponsoring candidates,” Damson
alleged.
“G40 candidates have also shown serious interest in the
primary elections. We, however, managed to weed out some of them. But in other
areas it was difficult because we could not disqualify some on the basis that they were being sponsored by land barons,” he
added.
The Harare primaries were held to choose representatives
for the vacant parliamentary constituencies in Epworth, Glen Norah, Harare
Central, Highfield East, Highfield West, Kuwadzana, Kuwadzana East, Mufakose and St Mary’s.
A total of 38 candidates submitted their CVs to represent
Zanu PF in the nine constituencies, but only 25 were given the green light
after 13 were disqualified for reasons ranging from not having been in the
party for five years or being a land baron, among other allegations.
For local government elections, 74 candidates expressed
interest for the 21 wards — out of which 58 were successful, while 18 were
disqualified for various reasons, and two withdrew on their own volition.
The withholding of the Harare primary elections results comes
as Zanu PF is also preparing for DCC polls which have similarly been marred by
allegations of money changing hands and ugly factional fights. So deep are the
suspicions in this regard, that the former liberation movement has now roped in
its security department to investigate these allegations and to deal with the
growing ructions in general, which have sullied the party’s preparations for the pending DCC
elections. Daily News
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