Zanu-PF campaign hit by 'fictitious registers'

Campaigns by aspiring candidates in Manicaland have been delayed over complaints that some cell registers have been tampered with. While most candidates across the country were given the green light to start campaigning after their respective provincial coordinating committee (PCC) meetings held on Monday, campaigns in Manicaland are yet to begin.

In an interview yesterday, Zanu-PF provincial secretary for administration Kenneth Saruchera said the provincial commissar, Gift Kagweda, was meeting the national political commissar in Harare over the issue.

"There is no programme yet. The PC (political commissar) is currently in Harare, where he had a meeting with the national political commissar. We hope he will have a programme for campaigns when he comes back," he said.

During the PCC meeting held in Mutare on Monday, there were several complaints over cell registers in Mutare South, Makoni South, Chipinge South and Buhera.

There were, however, a few complaints over the disqualification of preferred candidates.

Chipinge South aspiring candidate Enoch Porusingazi said the verification exercise in his constituency had been marred by confusion as the venue of the meeting was changed at the last minute, resulting in some members not attending.

Deputy national political commissar Omega Hungwe, who is leading a cell verification team in the province, however, said her team had dealt with all cases of tampering that had been raised.

She added that the province should create a programme for campaigns as soon as possible, as there was little time for candidates to meet people before the elections on Sunday.

"The provincial commissar should create programmes on how candidates will move during the campaign. There is little time to campaign, so you need to hurry and make use of the available time," she said.

"Some of these candidates have been trying to waylay the teams by announcing a different venue for the verification exercise so that people do not attend.

"There are people who were even threatening the teams. But my teams are using the cell registers we received from the commissar when we arrived in Manicaland and they will not use any other registers coming from individuals. We will not accept those," she added.

She said in areas where members of her team were conflicted, she had taken the initiative to redeploy them to other constituencies to avoid confusion.

Hungwe said candidates who had not qualified for the primary elections still had room to appeal.

"If you feel you were not treated fairly, you can appeal. But you need to hurry because we are already preparing the ballot papers that will be used during the elections," she said.

In the meantime, the province has since called for inter-district meetings to announce the names of successful candidates, as well as prepare campaign programmes.

For the first time, the ruling party has made it mandatory for aspiring candidates to jointly sell their policies to the electorate during campaigns in order to foster unity.

Candidates who break the rules will be automatically disqualified.