Zanu-PF aspiring MPs urged to be honest

ZANU-PF candidates vying for various positions in the forthcoming harmonised elections have been urged to be honest and give a true picture on the party's support in their constituencies.

Speaking at an election campaign roadmap meeting held in Mutare last week, provincial chairman Mike Madiro said reflecting correctly the situation on the ground helped in crafting winning strategies for Zanu-PF.

"Candidates have been lying too much. Naturally, things can never be good all the times but we need to be focused. We need people to be honest and tell the truth about the situation in their constituencies," he said.

Madiro said candidates should take campaigning as serious business. He said Zanu-PF members should bury the hatchet and ensure the ruling party wins resoundingly. "We should be ready because the Zanu-PF campaign machinery is now ready and already in place," he said.

Aspiring candidates who attended the meeting expressed concern over some Zanu-PF members working against the party's interest after losing in primary elections.

Senatorial aspiring candidate Ellen Gwaradzimba said concerns of that nature should not be swept under the carpet. She said the party should identify the aggrieved individuals, engage them and find a lasting solution.

"As leaders we know who is expressing those grievances. Some of these people are not politically mature. There is need to engage them and teach them the party's ideology and principles. The party should come first ahead of individual aspirations. We have to come out in the open Mr Chairman. These issues should not be swept under the carpet as they are dangerous to the party," she said.

Gwaradzimba said people should understand that problems faced during primary elections were not peculiar to Manicaland Province alone.

In his response, Madiro said: "Leadership made a pronouncement over the issue of primary elections. Some won fairly and some unfairly but the position has already been pronounced by the President."  Madiro encouraged Gwaradzimba to initiate a "healing process" and set up a committee that looks into the issues.

Soul Nzuma, who is vying for the Buhera West National Assembly seat, said he was facing challenges in reuniting losing and winning candidates.

Moses Gutu, from Nyanga South constituency, said they had also tried in vain to conduct meetings in a bid to unite party members.

"We have called for a meeting to discuss this issue of uniting and working together but it failed to materialise. Our fear is that some of the candidates, even those who won, might let us down at the Nomination Court. They will then go into election as independent candidates," he said.

Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) says it is happy with the manner the current voters' roll inspection programme is going on in Manicaland and has urged those with queries to visit inspection centres in the remaining days.

Provincial chief elections officer Mr Moffat Masabeya said the programme was going on well.

"Everything is progressing well and we have recruited some voter educators, inspection officers and supervisors who are already on the ground," he said.

"Those who have not yet registered should do so. We have also noted that a lot of people have received some SMS on their mobile phones and once they are satisfied, they are not visiting our centres," he said.

Mr Masabeya said people whose names were appearing in areas they feel uncomfortable voting have an opportunity to transfer to their places of choice.

"People can also take advantage of the window period to do the transfers. People can actually transfer their name to a place of their choice if they feel the name was placed in a wrong area. There is also room for re-registering as the inspection process is meant to iron out mistakes and add information which might have been omitted during the initial registration process," he said.