Zanu PF employs secret ballot system

ZANU PF has employed the secret ballot system ahead of its district executive elections to be held next week.

In a circular dated September 9 and signed by acting political commissar Patrick Chinamasa addressed to all provincial chairpersons, the elections will run between September 20 and 26.

The district executive elections will lead to provincial elections, likely to be held on October 9, according to party insiders. The party is still to lift the ban on members who want to contest for the provincial posts to campaign.

“The party’s district elections shall be conducted through the basket system and by secret ballot in order to achieve fair representation of all the party branches within the respective party district boundary,” Chinamasa wrote.

“Apart from the positions of the three chairpersons of the three wings, elections for the remaining 117 posts should be divided equally by the number of party branches in the district. Each branch will elect its quota to represent it in the district executive committee.”

The coming in of the district executive elections is likely to push the revolutionary party into an election mode ahead of the looming provincial election that has given birth to massive smear campaigns and mudslinging as party bigwigs position themselves for influential positions.

Chinamasa added that each branch should have at least a single polling station to avoid chaos.

“Each party branch will have one polling centre which is the place where the branch ordinarily assembles for its meetings. The voting process should be conducted in a manner as to avoid crowding in order to comply with the current COVID-19 restrictive measures.

“Candidates who are elected at the branch centres and who constitute the basket, will meet at the usual district executive committee meeting centre to elect from among themselves, the rest of the membership of the district executive committee,” read the circular.

The ruling party is currently undergoing a massive restructuring exercise and mobilising for five million votes ahead of the 2023 harmonised elections.