Zapu express disgust over Zanu-PF tricks to try and grab seats

ZAPU has expressed  displeasure and disgust over attempts by Zanu-PF regime to desperately  grab seats in Bulawayo during tomorrow's by-election.

"It is a matter of public knowledge that political parties, by their nature, seek to win the constitutional mandate to govern the country in Parliament through periodic elections," Zapu said.

"To win that mandate the parties have to win the hearts of the electorate by laying out to the said electorate their policies on how they will seek to improve the lives of the electorate. Promises are made during the campaign on the implementation and benefits of the policies to the electorate. It's part of the electioneering and acceptable to normal political parties and the electorate. The electorate will listen to the parties and make informed choices in the ballot box. It's part of the democratic process."

Zapu said therefore, when a party which for the past 35 years has made so many promises and presented a myriad of blueprints to the electorate and failed to deliver on a single one of them is faced with the challenge of coming up with a new promise and fails, maybe it is understandable when they resort to open threats against the electorate.

"Zanu-PF this time around, like any other party contesting against the People's Choice ZAPU has FAILED to come up with an election position and a saleable campaign manifesto," said Zapu.

"This time around, Zanu-PF, unbelievable as it may seem, is ASHAMED to wave the threadbare ZIMASSET in the electorates faces. That much vaunted pipedream has failed to deliver a single of the promised two million jobs to the unemployed and angry citizens of the country. And with the president now unashamedly sleeping openly on the job maybe one can forgive poor Mugabe's Deputy Emmerson Mnangagwa for openly discarding the carrot and brandishing the stick in the faces of the abused electorate."

Zapu said the extremely insensitive sentiments expressed openly in Tsholotsho and Pumula constituencies over the weekend that those areas are undeveloped because the people did not vote for Zanu-PF are in bad taste. 35 years after independence and under the watch of the Zanu-PF regime Tsholotsho has declined into a ghost town filled with the broken dreams of people who invested their resources and failed to reap returns on their investments because of lack of support from the regime.

"For Mnangagwa to openly say that is because the people of Tsholotsho dared to exercise their democratic right to representation of their choice is heartless," said Zapu in a statement.

"The same sentiments were expressed in Pumula constituency over the weekend by the candidate and his team. Pumula Constituency is, by the genius of the ZEC demarcation experts combined with the rural and farming community of Green Gables and Mbonqane. Zanu-PF has been parceling out City of Bulawayo land to the land hungry people of the area and others bussed in to bolster their chances of stealing the constituency. This weekend they took their levels of desperation to new lows by openly threatening to evict the 'resettled' people if the Zanu-PF candidate loses the election."

The party said the regime must wake up to the fact that people are no longer interested in them and their pipedreams.

"We therefore urge the electorate to stand firm in the face of such threats and make sure they kick out these gangsters on election day," Zapu said.

"The people must ignore the flyers that were being thrown like confetti at a wedding all over the city threatening further misery to the people if the Zanu-PF mafia is not elected. Typical of bullies Zanu-PF is panicking at the thought that its bluff is going to be called on June 10. And typical of a cowardly bull, the regime is resorting to ridiculous threats to try to whip its victims into line. We therefore implore the people to stand firm and treat these ridiculous threats with the disdain and contempt they deserve."