Zanu-PF threatens its poll candidates

FORMER State Security minister Owen Ncube has warned aspiring Members of Parliament (MPs) against garnering more votes than President Emmerson Mnangagwa in next month's polls.

Ncube, who is the Zanu-PF Midlands provincial secretary for security, said polling more votes than Mnangagwa, the party's presidential candidate, was a cardinal sin they should avoid at all costs, come August 23.

Speaking in Gweru over the weekend during the Mkoba North constituency campaign launch, Ncube said Mnangagwa was the head of the train hence no Zanu-PF member should get more votes than him.

"So when we are campaigning, it's the President first, followed by the MP and then the councillor," Ncube said.

"So our votes should go to baba (father) Mnangagwa because he is the President, the party leader and he is the head of the train. Then we vote for the MP and then the councillors."

He added: "The President's vote and that of the MP should not be the same. We don't want a situation whereby the MP campaigns with his name only. Come 23 August, we are going out in our numbers and vote for President ED Mnangagwa."

Mnangagwa scraped through with a narrow margin in the disputed 2018 polls, with reports indicating that some Zanu-PF officials had tried to engineer his downfall by encouraging party members to vote for opposition MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa in the presidential race.

According to Zanu-PF sources, there are fears in Mnangagwa's camp of a bhora musango (protest vote) against the Zanu-PF leader when Zimbabweans vote next month.

Bhora musango was popularised during the 2008 elections when Zanu-PF supporters voted for the ruling party candidates for parliamentary seats, while rejecting the late former President Robert Mugabe for factional reasons.

Mugabe narrowly lost to the late opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai in the election, although none of them attained the 50% plus one vote to win the election.

Tsvangirai pulled out of the resultant re-run citing violence against his supporters.

Mnangagwa is battling to douse factional flames in Zanu-PF following the party's chaotic primary elections which were run by Forever Associates Zimbabwe, an organisation reportedly linked to the country's Central Intelligence Organisation.

After the 2018 polls, Mnangagwa admitted that there were efforts to sabotage his candidacy within the party.

"I want to talk in general terms that there were those who were saying ‘vote for the MP, but as for the President, do what you think is good for you'. We know these people," he said at a Zanu-PF meeting after the polls.

In May 2018 before the elections, Mnangagwa claimed that he had unearthed a plot by his party's disgruntled parliamentary candidates to impeach him soon after the July 30, 2018 polls.