Zimbabwe has a total of 133 elective vacancies, which
comprise 28 parliamentary seats and 105 council seats emanating from recalls
and deaths.
Douglas Mwonzora’s MDC-T and Lucia Matibenga’s People’s
Democratic Party (PDP) have been responsible for the majority of seats that
fell vacant from 2018 to date. Matibenga recalled six House of Assembly members
with two representing Bulawayo constituencies.
Zimbabwe is gearing towards the March 26 by-elections to
fill the vacant seats with the
Matabeleland region having a total of 19 vacant local authority seats
and four national assembly seats.
Ndiweni, who is in exile in Britain was dethroned by
President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government in 2019 under controversial
circumstances.
In an eight page report in this paper’s possession, Ndiweni
said he recently observed the Zanu PF primaries where some members complained
of rigging. That is the same rigging that will manifest in the by-elections, he
said.
Zanu PF conducted primary elections in all provinces with
vacant wards and parliament seats amid internal party complaints that the polls
were characterised by rigging, intimidation and ballot stuffing.
To date the complaints have not been resolved.
“What an event that should be captured and put onto the big
screen. We observed Zanu PF members crying out loud about vote rigging by some
of their very own. Cries over stuffed ballot boxes and shouts over missing
ballot boxes. There were shouts of party election officials being stranded
without fuel so that they could not officiate during the vote counting,”
Ndiweni said.
“(There were) shouts of influential candidates letting
loose the Zimbabwe Republic Police to beat up whole villages, shouts over fist
fights at venues, shouts over candidates bribing voters and officials.
“There were shouts over candidates that are parachuted into
a constituency having not been chosen by the local people as their candidate…
This list is very long. However, it was giving us all a glimpse of vote rigging
in action by the ruling party, by Zanu PF. It is therefore 100 %. Let us say
this again, it is 100 % guaranteed that we will see vote rigging during the
coming by-elections.”
The chief said before it had even started, they had already
seen the long arm of ZEC tampering with the voters roll to favour the ruling
party, Zanu PF.
“People are being moved from one constituency to another,
even though they have not moved their physical addresses. We are seeing ZEC
tampering with constituency boundaries, gerrymandering, as it is called, once
again to suit Zanu PF. We are seeing the ZRP starting to lean on the true
opposition parties. No doubt the true opposition party is going to have great
difficulties in holding gatherings and campaigning. As we saw in the Zanu PF
primaries, we will see many other rigging events,” Ndiweni said.
“Let us not forget that the Zanu PF government has refused
to implement the electoral reforms that we Zimbabweans wanted. These reforms
were tabulated by Zimbabweans, political parties, clergy, academics, NGO’s,
civic society, traditional leaders, government officials, legal professionals,
lawyers, magistrates, judges the public, chiefs and other traditional leaders.”
Ndiweni said these electoral reforms were not something
that was just created by the West to be forced on the Zimbabwean government. He
said lack of the implementation of these electoral reforms meant that already
the true opposition is starting at a disadvantage.
ZEC recently announced that they have set aside USD$3,7
million for the by elections and Ndiweni said this issue was of great concern
to the citizens.
“Such a large sum of money does not bode well for the
public purse. A huge percentage of these funds will disappear. Since it is now
evident to all that ZEC is really not fulfilling its constitutional mandate in
the manner that it should.
“So funds, public funds , will be converted into private
funds,” Ndiweni said.
Ndiweni’s remarks came at a time when the opposition
Citizens’ Coalition for Change (CCC) party threatened protests against ZEC,
accusing the election management body of attempting to rig the March 26
by-elections.
Zec is being accused of illegally moving over 170 000
voters from their original constituencies and wards on the voters roll to be
used for the March 26 by-elections, a move which critics say could affect the
credibility of the polls.
However, Zanu PF spokesperson Christopher Mutsvangwa said
CCC was panicking and sensing defeat ahead of the elections.
“They definitely will not wash with an electorate long
wallowing in the miasma of flowing sewage, stinking uncollected garbage, dirty
well water, pothole roads and stark lack of jobs,” Mutsvangwa said.
Chief elections officer, Utoile Silaigwana recently said
citizens or organisations affected by the changes should approach ZEC district
offices.
“Can we see the claims because we haven’t received any complaints
to date? You are very aware that the voter registration exercise is still
underway, and so we can only have the correct information when it has been
completed,” Silaigwana said. Standard
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