News / National
Trio rejects Zanu-PF election results
03 Dec 2013 at 03:56hrs | Views
Losing candidates in the Zanu-PF provincial elections from Masvingo, Mash East and Bulawayo have rejected the outcome of the weekend polls, alleging several irregularities including the use of inappropriate registers in the voting process.
The election was also marred by serious violence in some areas where riot police spent the part of the day on Saturday in running battles with the protesting voters.
Ailes Baloyi from Masvingo, Philemon Mutongi (Mashonaland East) and Killian Sibanda (Bulawayo) argued that the polls failed to pass the democratic test as enshrined in the Zanu PF constitution.
One of the losing candidates, Blessed Geza, described the elections as a "disaster because people were not able to exercise their democratic right to choose their preferred candidates."
The losing candidate in Mashonaland East, Philemon Mutongi, has not been graceful in defeat. He is even questioning the authenticity of the figures, which saw Kaukonde win by 24 263 votes, while he also cries foul that he submitted his CV to the party on October 24 yet it was only published on November 27, 48 hours before voting.
He also claims there was multiple voting in favour of Cde Kaukonde.
"I was looking at the numbers from other provinces and it's an average of 5 000. Where did the figure of 24 263 in Mashonaland East come from when there was low voter turnout? I was even beating him in his home area of Mudzi South," he said.
Mutongi, political commissar of Ward 5 Marondera Rural for the past 15 years, said he would petition the party over the issue.
In Bulawayo, Killian Sibanda, decried the process claiming that 70 percent of the voters failed to cast their ballots because their names were not on the lists.
Reports said some candidates produced their own voters' rolls.
Police had to be called in to intervene in Gutu and Bikita as fights broke out because some voters' names were not on the roll and some claimed they had been disenfranchised because they supported a particular candidate.
At another polling station, voters stormed out after allegedly being told to vote for one candidate.
In Bikita, said one report, voters' names were removed from the Electoral College allegedly because they supported Munyaradzi Kereke.
However, war veterans' leader, Jabulani Sibanda, said the elections showed that "Zanu-PF is not only a revolutionary party but a democratic party."
"Infighting and voting irregularities do not reflect democracy in an intra-party or national election," said Sibanda.
The election was also marred by serious violence in some areas where riot police spent the part of the day on Saturday in running battles with the protesting voters.
Ailes Baloyi from Masvingo, Philemon Mutongi (Mashonaland East) and Killian Sibanda (Bulawayo) argued that the polls failed to pass the democratic test as enshrined in the Zanu PF constitution.
One of the losing candidates, Blessed Geza, described the elections as a "disaster because people were not able to exercise their democratic right to choose their preferred candidates."
The losing candidate in Mashonaland East, Philemon Mutongi, has not been graceful in defeat. He is even questioning the authenticity of the figures, which saw Kaukonde win by 24 263 votes, while he also cries foul that he submitted his CV to the party on October 24 yet it was only published on November 27, 48 hours before voting.
He also claims there was multiple voting in favour of Cde Kaukonde.
"I was looking at the numbers from other provinces and it's an average of 5 000. Where did the figure of 24 263 in Mashonaland East come from when there was low voter turnout? I was even beating him in his home area of Mudzi South," he said.
In Bulawayo, Killian Sibanda, decried the process claiming that 70 percent of the voters failed to cast their ballots because their names were not on the lists.
Reports said some candidates produced their own voters' rolls.
Police had to be called in to intervene in Gutu and Bikita as fights broke out because some voters' names were not on the roll and some claimed they had been disenfranchised because they supported a particular candidate.
At another polling station, voters stormed out after allegedly being told to vote for one candidate.
In Bikita, said one report, voters' names were removed from the Electoral College allegedly because they supported Munyaradzi Kereke.
However, war veterans' leader, Jabulani Sibanda, said the elections showed that "Zanu-PF is not only a revolutionary party but a democratic party."
"Infighting and voting irregularities do not reflect democracy in an intra-party or national election," said Sibanda.
Source - herald
