Tsvangirai's 'spoil ballots' campaign fails in Tsholotsho

A CAMPAIGN by MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai urging voters to spoil ballots in Tsholotsho North constituency spectacularly failed on Wednesday after the Zanu-PF candidate Professor Jonathan Moyo polled an emphatic 11,695 votes in a by-election, with only 151 spoilt ballot papers.

Tsvangirai, weeks before the poll that was also contested by MDC proxies Busani Ncube and Gertrude Sibanda, held a rally at Jimila Business Centre, largely attended by people from outside the constituency, and urged voters to spoil ballots.

Prior to the Jimila rally, Tsvangirai had held a countrywide tour calling on his supporters not to take part in the polls under the slogan "No Reforms, No Elections".

The numbers in Wednesday's elections proved that Tsvangirai's campaign was an exercise in futility as Prof Moyo romped to victory in landslide fashion.

Ncube garnered 91 votes while Sibanda got 38.

In Ward Six which covers Jimila where Tsvangirai addressed his rally, Prof Moyo garnered a total of 1,714 votes, the highest tally in all the wards, of which only a paltry 29 were spoilt votes. His opponents Busani Ncube and Getrude Sibanda got 11 and 5 votes respectively.

Zanu-PF secretary for information and publicity Simon Khaya Moyo said the numbers in Tsholotsho North and the country in general proved that Tsvangirai is "a non-actor in the theatre of politics."

"This shows that Tsvangirai's campaign was meaningless. In 2013, he called on the people to vote without the so called electoral reforms and two years later he tells them not to vote," said Khaya Moyo.

"What does he gain when people spoil ballots? It shows that his party is in the Intensive Care Unit and there're no doctors around."

Khaya Moyo was one of the party bigwigs who were roped in by Prof Moyo to help him reclaim the seat he lost to the MDC-T's Roselyn Nkomo in July 2013. Khaya Moyo addressed a well-attended rally at Jimila to drum up support for Prof Moyo.

The MDC-T precipitated 14 by-elections countrywide after taking a decision to recall 21 MPs who broke away to form MDC Renewal. Seven of the 21 were proportional representation MPs who are not directly elected.

"You can see that Tsvangirai is contradicting himself. He fills candidates for the proportional representation seats and calls for a boycott of elections," said Khaya Moyo. "The results show that the people have seen the light and have seen that only Zanu-PF is the party of choice.

"If I were him [Tsvangirai], I would resign from politics. There's nothing left for him. He has discredited himself to become a non-actor in the theatre of politics."

Announcing the results at the constituency's command centre at Sipepa Secondary School, Tsholotsho North constituency elections officer, Zelembu Dube, said of the total votes cast, 151 were spoilt ballot papers.

He said 231 people were turned away while 185 people, 13 of them blind, had been assisted to vote.

Zanu-PF Matabeleland North provincial chairperson Richard Moyo said the party welcomed the victory and promised to deliver on the electoral promises.

"We're happy as Matabeleland North that Prof Moyo has won the seat. We had lost the seat in 2013 in ways that could not be understood, but the people of Tsholotsho have corrected that mistake," said Moyo.

"What's left now is to deliver the promises made to the people during campaigns. The people of Tsholotsho face many problems including water shortages, human-animal conflict and drought. The party will assist Prof Moyo in attending to those issues."

On Wednesday, soon after casting his vote at Mlevu Primary School, Prof Moyo said he felt liberated from the 2013 disaster.

"This has been a blessing in disguise, it has been, if you will, if you're a person of faith, an act of God to correct what went horribly wrong in the general election in 2013 when the MDC-T smuggled itself into the constituency, brought someone who had neither interest nor capacity to represent this constituency who spent 20 months in Parliament mum with no word but collecting a monthly salary, getting a new car at the expense of the constituency," said Prof Moyo.

"So the invisible hand, I mean no-one has been able to come up with a rational explanation as to why Tsvangirai expelled those people, and I think it's because it was an act of God. The things that are done by the invisible hand of God don't need idle explanation from mortals but it was to help this constituency and benefit other constituencies far away in the process."