SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe
The losing candidates in ZANU PF’s primary elections will not have an opportunity to contest the results of their internal selection process, after the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission ruled that the nomination day will not be changed from Friday.
This leaves the former ruling party with less than 48 hours to listen to disputes or conduct reruns, as suggested by party activists, following what has been described as one of the most controversial internal selection processes in years.
It took the MDC-T almost six weeks to complete its own in-house selection, but ZANU PF thought they would do them in just a day, a move that has left the party sharply divided and in a rush to meet Friday’s nomination deadline.
Addressing political parties in Harare on Tuesday, ZEC chairperson Rita Makarau said the court would go ahead with the nomination process on 28th June after doubts were raised following an error made by President Robert Mugabe in declaring Thursday as the nomination day instead of Friday.
Makarau emphasized that the nomination court will sit on Friday starting at 10am and ending at 4pm, advising all aspiring candidates that their papers should be filed no later than 4pm Friday.
‘If your papers are not in order by 4pm we will have no option but to throw your candidature out. Make sure your papers are in order. We do not want you to lose because of a technicality, but we want you to lose because the people rejected you,’ Makarau said.
This ruling will have a huge impact on ZANU PF as in the aftermath of its primary elections a wave of postmortems is brewing, as both senior officials and rank and file members of the party trade accusations as to who caused the woeful staging of the polls that saw some of the top guns fall.
What is clear from the preliminary results released so far is that those in Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa’s camp have made significant inroads. Many from the Joice Mujuru faction have dismally lost.
One of the biggest casualties is party spokesman Rugare Gumbo, who lost the Senatorial race to former Governor of the Midlands province July Moyo, a Mnangagwa ally.
A number of sitting MPs have already said goodbye to their legislative careers, at least for the next five years, after succumbing to their contenders in the primaries, which have been held in 210 constituencies across the country.
MPs like the ZANU PF COPAC co-chairman Paul Mangwana, Agriculture Minister Joseph Made, Isheunesu Muza from Redcliff, Ordour Nyakudanga in Mutoko East, were all handed humiliating defeats which will deny them the privilege to represent their constituencies in the upcoming elections.
The major talking point of the exercise, despite ZANU PF’s oft repeated statements that they are ready for elections, is the clear indication the vote was affected hugely by irregularities and violations all over the country.
Observers told us every single constituency and district in the 210 constituencies was affected by multiple forms of irregularities.
One of the irregularities was that in some constituencies the party’s voters roll was ditched and anyone with an ID was allowed to vote. There were allegations that even the MDC were voting, for candidates they knew would not stand a chance against their own party candidates in the forthcoming poll.