Vice President Mphoko doing a splendid job

I was actually surprised and shocked when I read an article in one of the local dailies where Vice President (VP), Phelekezela Mphoko was being accused of leading vote buying in Mutare, ahead of June 10 by-election to be held in Chikanga-Dangamvura constituency.

According to Oxford dictionary, campaigning can be referred to as an organized effort to influence the decision making process within a specific group when seeking election to political office.

It is common knowledge that every candidate competing for any election must familiarize himself/herself to the electorate through election campaigning. Normally, candidates avail themselves into local communities to meet with voters and persuade people to support them through casting their votes on them.

According to Zimbabwe Election Commission's Electoral Code of Conduct for Political Parties and Candidates, number 4. (b) (iv) Every political party and every candidate has the right to freely distribute campaign material.

Election campaigning techniques takes account of a campaign's goal, message, target audience, and resources available. The campaign will typically seek to identify supporters; at the same time those electorates should get the campaign message from the aspirant candidate.

In that case, there are a number of different campaigning strategies to market the candidate which includes rallies, use of posters, campaign advertising (which is the use of paid media) in both print and electoral media, donations of commodities such as food stuffs, blankets and clothing among others.

Honestly, I totally disagree with the article that blamed VP Mphoko and the ZANU-PF candidate for Chikanga-Dangamvura constituency, Esau Mupfumi on the issue of vote buying. Just like any other candidate who is facing an election soon, campaigning is certainly necessary.

Actually, VP Mphoko should be commended for doing a splendid job. I understand that most people will agree with me when I say, we are living in the world of competition; therefore, for one to win the battle there is need of effective campaigning. Truth be told, election victory cannot be achieved by just sitting and watching as events unfold.

The true fact that ZANU-PF candidates have resources for election campaign shows that the ruling party is well organized. As it stands, most opposition candidates are invisible in the campaigning field. All candidates contesting in the June 10, by-elections should be quite cognizant that failing to attract electorates during campaigning period usually leads to a fail or a loss in the number of votes.

Campaigns have always been there, hence ZANU-PF should maximize the campaigning time that it has before the election date.

I doubt very much if donating food can be classified as vote buying. The real vote buying was noticed in 2008 when MDC-T together with Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) donated mealie meal as aid which had MDC-T logo of an open hand inside so as to convince the electorate. To add on, MDC-T could dish out sanitary wear to our grandmothers who had even passed the age of using them. Yes, that was vote buying.

In a nutshell, ZANU-PF should not be discouraged by its rivals on its campaigning techniques. It is saddening that some opposition political parties like, Zapu are doing door to door campaigning in Bulawayo with aim of winning the five seats in that city. Therefore, the revolutionary party's candidates should continue working hard in order to reclaim the lost seats that were in the hands of the opposition parties.