FORMER State Security minister Owen Ncube has warned aspiring Members of Parliament (MPs) against garnering more votes than President Emmerson Mnangagwa in next month’s polls.
Ncube, who is the Zanu PF Midlands provincial secretary for
security, said polling more votes than Mnangagwa, the party’s presidential
candidate, was a cardinal sin they should avoid at all costs, come August 23.
Speaking in Gweru over the weekend during the Mkoba North
constituency campaign launch, Ncube said Mnangagwa was the head of the train
hence no Zanu PF member should get more votes than him.
“So when we are campaigning, it’s the President first,
followed by the MP and then the councillor,” Ncube said.
“So our votes should go to baba (father) Mnangagwa because
he is the President, the party leader and he is the head of the train. Then we
vote for the MP and then the councillors.”
He added: “The President’s vote and that of the MP should
not be the same. We don’t want a situation whereby the MP campaigns with his
name only. Come 23 August, we are going out in our numbers and vote for
President ED Mnangagwa.”
Mnangagwa scraped through with a narrow margin in the
disputed 2018 polls, with reports indicating that some Zanu PF officials had
tried to engineer his downfall by encouraging party members to vote for
opposition MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa in the presidential race.
According to Zanu PF sources, there are fears in
Mnangagwa’s camp of a bhora musango (protest vote) against the Zanu PF leader
when Zimbabweans vote next month.
Bhora musango was popularised during the 2008 elections
when Zanu PF supporters voted for the ruling party candidates for parliamentary
seats, while rejecting the late former President Robert Mugabe for factional
reasons.
Mugabe narrowly lost to the late opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai in the election, although none of them attained the 50% plus one
vote to win the election.
Tsvangirai pulled out of the resultant re-run citing
violence against his supporters.
Mnangagwa is battling to douse factional flames in Zanu PF
following the party’s chaotic primary elections which were run by Forever
Associates Zimbabwe, an organisation reportedly linked to the country’s Central
Intelligence Organisation.
After the 2018 polls, Mnangagwa admitted that there were
efforts to sabotage his candidacy within the party.
“I want to talk in general terms that there were those who
were saying ‘vote for the MP, but as for the President, do what you think is
good for you’. We know these people,” he said at a Zanu PF meeting after the
polls.
In May 2018 before the elections, Mnangagwa claimed that he
had unearthed a plot by his party’s disgruntled parliamentary candidates to
impeach him soon after the July 30, 2018 polls. Newsday
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