Zanu-PF supporters lift their preferred House of Assemble candidate for Insiza North constituent a Mr Farai Taruvinga during the party’s primary elections at Gwatemba business centre in Insiza district yesterday, the aspiring candidate was enjoying overwhelming support….Picture By Dennis Mudzamiri…
Chronicle Reporters/Harare Bureau
Zanu-PF has planted a seed of internal party democracy by holding primary elections in a different manner, and whatever challenges faced are part of efforts at firmly rooting democratic ethos in the revolutionary party, President Mnangagwa said yesterday.
In statement, the Zanu-PF President and First Secretary vowed that the ruling party will resoundingly win harmonised elections due soon.
“As we inch nearer and nearer the Harmonised National Elections which will fall due in a few months’ time, our national people’s party, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, Zanu-PF, is gradually, but inexorably putting its ducks in a row for this plebiscite which it is set to win resoundingly,” said President Mnangagwa.
He said the programme of preparing Zanu-PF for the elections started with meetings and many internal processes across the country, which culminated in the primary elections.
“What set these party primary elections apart from those we have had in the past is the fact that these have been conducted under the auspices of a newly created arm of our party, the Party Elections Commission, which we commissioned recently in order to professionalise our candidate selection process, so we deepen our party’s internal democratic traditions,” said President Mnangagwa.
“Whatever teething problems we have experienced so far and we have noted them closely – we remain convinced that the democratic course we have started in the management of our party affairs is the correct one, indeed one befitting a party of our history, our strength, and our stature.”
President Mnangagwa said it should be noted that Zanu-PF was the party of national liberation, governing national affairs.
“This means our responsibilities in shaping and reshaping the national body politic, as well as the national democratic and electoral ethos, can never be shirked or overstated,” he said.
Zanu-PF members wait for the announcement of results at the command centre at Davies Hall in Bulawayo yesterday
“As the ruling party, the democratic content and standards of our processes define and pre-ordain our national politics. We thus must not fear to widen the scope and play of the elective ethic in our party affairs and processes.
“Whatever challenges we face in the interim must thus be in the direction of firmly rooting the democratic ethos which, after all, we planted in the land through our historical sacrifices as a party of national liberation.”
President Mnangagwa said the turnout in the primary elections was overwhelming.
“Far more poignant than the teething problems we have encountered in this internal selection project is the overwhelming turnout of our people who have registered their enthusiasm and keenness to participate in this process, which after all, they see as guaranteeing their successful election in the forthcoming plebiscite,” he said.
President Mnangagwa said the primary elections had displayed Zanu-PF’s strength.
“Equally, our capacity to compete against one another in a non-antagonistic, comradely way has been demonstrated,” he said. “We have thus sown a seed of internal party democracy; we have thus successfully tested our cohesion as members of the same political family.
“And because of both, we have just sent clear signals to those who have chosen to pit themselves against the sheer might of our party.”
President Mnangagwa — who is the Zanu-PF presidential candidate — said the ruling party would soon launch its manifesto, marking the start of its campaign programme, “which must be conducted in an environment of continued unity and total peace”.
He said Zanu-PF wanted a free, fair and uncontested result.
“As Zanu-PF, this is our obligation to our nation, indeed our pledge to the rest of the world,” said President Mnangagwa.
Voting in the primary elections has spilled into another day in some parts of the southern region of the country, with thousands of party members thronging polling stations to cast their votes.
In Bulawayo province vote counting started yesterday and results were ready by the end of the day in some constituencies.
The provincial elections team led by Cde George Nare spent the better part of the day counting the votes as aspiring candidates and their supporters milled around the party’s provincial headquarters Davies Hall waiting for the announcement of results.
Some of the party members were getting impatient calling on the elections team to announce the results of constituencies whose votes had been counted.
However, Cde Nare would have none of it and in an interview he said his team would only announce the results in consultation with the national commissariat department. “The final announcement of the results will obviously come after consulting the national commissariat after consultation with their seniors too. As far as I’m concerned my team and I are doing our work very well,” said Cde Nare.
He said in everything they are doing, updates are being made to national commissariat department. In Gweru Rural constituency in the Midlands Province, Zifa vice president Cde Omega Sibanda has been declared the winner, shrugging off challenge from the incumbent Cde Josphat Madubeko, Rtd Lt-Col Tenias Shava, Cdes Mzondiwa Mpofu, Bongani Rukanda and Luther Mabandla.
Midlands provincial chairperson Engineer Daniel Mackenzie Ncube confirmed the development saying voting and vote counting had gone on well in the constituency. “I don’t have the figure with regard to the number of voters at the moment but Gweru Vungu is done and Cde Omega Sibanda has won,” he said.
Eng Ncube said counting of votes had started well in other constituencies such as Kwekwe Central, Mkoba, Zvishavane Runde, and Chiwundura. He said in Gokwe North and South, people were still voting amid indications that the process was going to run well into the (last) night. “Voting is still going on in constituencies such as Zvishavane Ngezi, Mberengwa North and South and Chirumhanzu Zibagwe. Some of these constituencies received voting material late while at others there were some challenges which disrupted voting but I’m glad to note that we are on course and results will be announced as they come in,” he said.
In Matabeleland North the party finally managed to dispatch voting material and deploy election officers yesterday after rectifying challenges faced on Sunday.
However, there were still challenges with ballot papers for local authorities while some remote parts of the province such as parts of Binga, Tsholotsho and Nkayi had not received material by yesterday afternoon. Eighteen out of 19 wards in Umguza district as well as Hwange central had voted yesterday afternoon while it was still game on in Lupane.
Elections commissioner for the province Cde Tinaye Chigudu said voting will continue until all prospective voters cast their ballot. “The primaries were supposed to be yesterday but because of lack of required material we had to have them today. However, I am aware that there are some areas like Binga where voting material has not arrived,” said Cde Chigudu, in an interview at the command centre at the party’s provincial offices in Lupane.
He said it will be unfair not to extend time for voting because scores of people had patiently waited on Sunday and were let down by unavailability of materials.
He said the party had communicated to all districts alerting people of the new developments and that they can still vote.
The deadline was 7.30pm last night. “If there are people who would not have voted at the cut off time I don’t think we will stop until we are sure that everyone has exercised their right to vote.
“Some places gathered yesterday and didn’t get information that voting had been extended hence we have sent information hoping everyone will get a chance. I will be grossly unfair if I say no to extension considering remote areas,” he said.
Cde Chigudu said the turnout was good at those centres where voting took place.
He said while the challenge was non-availability of ballot papers for local authorities, there were no challenges with material for National Assembly, Senatorial as well as provincial council. He said results will be announced centrally by the National Political Commissariat office.
Cde Chigudu said the process had gone well without violence save for a scuffle between two aspiring councillors in Umguza’s ward 4 on Sunday. He said he was yet to get a report from the election officers at the station and such cases would be dealt with individually.
In Matabeleland South province, voting spilled into another day in Gwanda and Umzingwane, while in Insiza North, thousands of voters turned out in their numbers but voting only took place at one polling station. At Amazon, party members voted on Monday and yesterday while at Filabusi Centre, Skuta and Khayanyama polling stations, voters gathered for two days and were by yesterday still waiting to vote as there were no polling agents.
At Filabusi Centre, some people voted while most were turned away because their names did not appear on the cell register although they insisted that their names should have been there.
The party members told The Chronicle that one of the cadres vying for the Insiza North constituency seat, Cde Farai Taruvinga’s name was struck off the list in an effort to sabotage him.
Cde Taruvinga, who seems to be the popular candidate among the electorate, is battling it out with Cdes Andrew Langa, Patrick Hove, Dennis Ndlovu, Vumani Moyo, Owen Nyoni and Lovemore Mangena. By 6PM yesterday, party members had dispersed without voting and were calling for the postponement of the elections to this weekend.