News / National
Ibbo Mandaza predicts Zanu PF poll routing
18 May 2018 at 14:48hrs | Views
SENIOR academic and publisher Ibbo Mandaza says continuous internal rifts have weakened Zanu-PF and placed it at the most probable danger of defeat by the opposition in elections due this year, NewZimbabwe.com reported.
In an address during an elections conference organised by the Election Resource Centre on Thursday, Mandaza said bad blood among the country's security forces also planted mistrust within the pro-Zanu PF State institutions, making it the most ideal situation for a Zanu PF poll defeat.
"The party of liberation lost its mass base in the 90s and it has never been able to recover it and will not recover it," he said.
"It's a fair conclusion to make, that the party of liberation which is tattered, broken, fractured cannot win elections in 2018."
Mandaza said the forthcoming elections were being staged against the backdrop of a "disintegrating Mugabe era" which he said was triggered by the once feared leader's November ouster.
"The coup represents ironically a stage in the disintegration of the Zanu PF party and State; not restoration as is claimed by the coup leaders and therefore the current freedom that you are experiencing in the rural areas to the extent to which the opposition is able to have rallies in areas they have never been able to hold rallies before. It's because the state has disintegrated. They are nolonger able to control events.
"The state is divided; army versus police, army versus CIO. It's a fractured state. That might board well for the elections. That there would be more freedom of movement, freedom to campaign but it can also mean that sections of the state, desperate that they are becoming, can react and react violently."
In an address during an elections conference organised by the Election Resource Centre on Thursday, Mandaza said bad blood among the country's security forces also planted mistrust within the pro-Zanu PF State institutions, making it the most ideal situation for a Zanu PF poll defeat.
"The party of liberation lost its mass base in the 90s and it has never been able to recover it and will not recover it," he said.
Mandaza said the forthcoming elections were being staged against the backdrop of a "disintegrating Mugabe era" which he said was triggered by the once feared leader's November ouster.
"The coup represents ironically a stage in the disintegration of the Zanu PF party and State; not restoration as is claimed by the coup leaders and therefore the current freedom that you are experiencing in the rural areas to the extent to which the opposition is able to have rallies in areas they have never been able to hold rallies before. It's because the state has disintegrated. They are nolonger able to control events.
"The state is divided; army versus police, army versus CIO. It's a fractured state. That might board well for the elections. That there would be more freedom of movement, freedom to campaign but it can also mean that sections of the state, desperate that they are becoming, can react and react violently."
Source - newzimbabwe
