The Chronicle

BULAWAYO, Tuesday, May 11, 1993 — The result of the Ward 13 by-election in which independent candidate, Mr Wilson Sibanda, won ahead of the ruling Zanu-PF candidate, Mr Effort Nkomo, will stand, says a senior council official.

Reacting to complaints raised by Zanu-PF, whose provincial chairman, Clr Abednigo Nyathi, indicated that the party was going to ask for fresh elections, the deputy Town Clerk, Mr Moffat Ndlovu, said: “People must be magnanimous in victory or in defeat. The poll was valid. You are bound to get spoiled papers in any elections. It is part of a democratic system.”

Mr Ndlovu said it was the duty of the parties standing in election to educate their voters on the proper voting procedures as was advised by the returning officer and Town Clerk, Mr Mike Ndubiwa, before the election date.

Mr Ndlovu who declared Mr Sibanda a councillor on Sunday evening after the counting in which he had polled 669 votes against Mr Nkomo’s 547 votes, said the large number of spoiled papers -475- was not the council’s fault.

He said the council was going to write a letter to the Ministry of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development informing them of the results as a formality.

Clr Nyathi, however, said the ruling party lodged a complaint with the Town Clerk’s office yesterday and was also going to write a letter to the Ministry of Local Government to register its disappointment at the way the elections were conducted.

The demonstration charts outside the polling stations were different from the ballot papers.