Zanu-PF primaries: Chiredzi, Mwenezi record high voter turnout

CHIREDZI and Mwenezi have reaffirmed their positions as undisputed Zanu-PF strongholds in Masvingo after some of the winning candidates in the recent party primary elections polled more than 7 000 votes.

The winning candidate in Chiredzi North Cde Roy Bhila polled more than 9 000 votes, while Cde Joosbi Omar won by more than 7 000 votes in Mwenezi East constituency, according to preliminary results of the ruling party’s internal plebscite.

Analysts said the high number of votes garnered by the winning candidates in parts of the two districts further confirmed that they are Zanu-PF strongholds.

They added that people in Mwenezi and Chiredzi showed a high degree of voting culture despite the fact that thousands others failed to cast their ballots due to shambolic cell registers.

In Mwenezi East, Cde Omar polled 7 918, followed by Cde Master Makope with 1 454 votes, while seven others shared less than 1 500 votes according to the results. The total number of votes cast in Mwenezi were more than 12 000.

In Chiredzi North, the total number of people who voted in the ruling party primaries was more than 15 000.

Winning House of Assembly candidates in the majority of other 24 constituencies across the province hardly managed to garner more than 5 000 votes.

Zanu-PF Masvingo Provincial chairman Cde Ezra Chadzamira yesterday said Mwenezi and Chiredzi had proved to be Zanu-PF strongholds.

“I would want to commend voters in Chiredzi North and Mwenezi East for casting their votes. This shows that their appetite for exercising democracy is enormous,” he said.

Cde Chadzamira, however, said the low turnout in other parts of Masvingo was not a new phenomenon. He said most voters preferred to participate in national elections than party internal polls.

“Naturally, not all people vote in the primary elections and we have experienced this before. You will realise the figures will increase phenomenally during national elections,” said Cde Chadzamira.

He said most people did not vote in the primaries because of missing names in cell registers, a scenario that was not peculiar to Masvingo Province alone.

“We had challenges with cell registers as the majority of our members did not inspect the cell registers to ensure that their names were there.”