Zanu PF steps up poll preps

Staff Reporter

The ruling Zanu PF is taking no prisoners in its preparation toward the upcoming harmonised elections, a leaked party memo has revealed.

The memo dated 30 May 2023 reveals that the harmonised election slated for August 2023 will have 12,500 polling stations as “confirmed” by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) and that Zanu PF will train 37 500 party election agents to man the polling stations countrywide.

“… the revolutionary party intends to train 37 500 party election polling agents accross the country. This means that each polling station will be manned by three party election polling agents across the country. In that regard, Provinces are directed to advise successful Members of Parliament to appoint three (3) competent party election polling agents per polling station.”

Zanu PF completed  its primary elections for local authorities and parliamentary candidates in April and is on the ground campaigning while the main opposition Citizen Coalition for Change (CCC) is yet to make public its candidates’ list.

Despite party leader Nelson Chamisa recently saying the party’s candidate selection process was a “done deal,” the opposition has kept cards close to its chest with regard the candidates’ list.

CCC jettisoned primary elections in favour of a long and rigorous “citizen-centred” selection process where  ordinary citizens were reportedly afforded the chance to select representatives of their choice.

Party Spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere said the opposition party would not bow to Zanu PF pressure to reveal its candidates.

However, analysts have cast aspersions at the party’s determination to keep its candidates under wraps. Nomination of candidates began on the 10th of June and closes on  21 June when the Nomination court sits.

Former Information Minister, Jonathan Moyo who has been highly critical of the opposition lately, said  the opposition CCC was not doing itself any favours.

“At this stage, it cannot be an advantage to any political party to be still engaged in its own secret and opaque candidate selection processes, when the ZEC nomination process has started. This is a no brainer which has nothing to do with ZanuPF.

So, if there is anyone stampeding CCC to reveal its candidates, it is its own candidates, the voters and the electoral clock which has started ticking.

The 2023 election has started in earnest!”

 “…CCC is still to decide its slate of local govt and parliamentary candidates in what has become an opaque, controversial and divisive process which is anything but innovative, democratic or community based.

The cat is about to get out of the bag. Interesting times ahead!” tweeted the acerbic Moyo on microblogging site, Twitter.

CCC supporters who spoke to this publication are divided on the way their party is handling its processes.

“We have lost and continue to lose a lot of time. The candidates cannot campaign because they are uncertain about their candidature. This delay will prove detrimental because there is not enough time for candidates to campaign. We have gone about this so strangely. It’s diffucult to draw any positives from this situation.

We are saying we won’t reveal candidates because Zanu PF will go after them and arrest them but that excuse is not good enough because they can be arrested any time, even after nomination,” said Elvis Dube of Dete.

Simiso Tshuma believes the party has chosen the right path by keeping the opponent guessing. She hailed the move as a “strategic masterstroke.”

“We as party members are happy because we know our candidates. Zanu PF is the one interested in our party affairs and when they talk like this, we know they are panicking because we have pre-empted their plans to infiltrate and cause trouble. We know that we are voting for a CCC president, MP and councillor.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa will have a rematch with CCC’s  Nelson Chamisa whom he narrowly beat in a hotly disputed election result in 2018.