Published by the government of Zimbabwe
7 November 2009
Harare — ZANU-PF members in Harare will today meet at the party's headquarters to elect the party's Harare provincial chairman, amid high optimism from the contesting candidates.
Previous attempts to conduct the elections early this year, collapsed after supporters of the two leaders eyeing the chairmanship -- Cdes Amos Midzi and Hubert Nyanhongo -- engaged in violent clashes that disrupted the process.
Today's election was ordered by the Politburo, which is the party's supreme decision-making body between congresses, to bring to an end the electoral process and factionalism in the province.
In separate interviews, the candidates expressed their readiness for the poll.
Cde Nyanhongo said despite of the "irregularities", which he said, characterised the selection of district members, he was going to win today's election.
"There were a lot of imposition of people in four DCCs by some members of the Central Committee, but this is not going to stop me from romping to victory," he said.
"In fact, today's election is just a formality because people have already expressed their will in the election held last year."
Cde Nyanhongo condemned the imposition of people as the "worst evil" that would affect the party in the general elections.
He declared that if he wins today's election, he would re-organise the party in the province by setting up new structures.
"If I win, I will first unite all Zanu-PF members in Harare because there is only one Zanu-PF in the country," he said.
However, Cde Midzi declared that the people of Harare were behind him and he would win today's elections resoundingly.
"All Zanu-PF members in Harare have been waiting for this day anxiously for almost a year and they want to see this exercise being conducted," said Cde Midzi.
"I hope the process is going to produce the right leader for the province and I am convinced that it is going to be me."
He dispelled allegations that some Central Committee members imposed candidates in some districts to influence the outcome of today's elections.
"As far as we are concerned, the process of selecting district members was done to the satisfaction of the majority. All procedures were followed and the results of this election will be credible," said Cde Midzi.
He paid tribute to the ad-hoc committee, led by Cde David Karimanzira, which was tasked to organise the elections, for doing a sterling job in preparing for today's poll.
The party's secretary for administration, Cde Didymus Mutasa, yesterday said today's elections would be conducted in a peaceful environment.
"The ad-hoc committee has come up with security structures that will deal with all those who might want to disrupt tomorrow's (today) elections," said Cde Mutasa.
"We also hope that the people who will vote in this election were properly vetted to avoid complains from other sections of the electorate."
Recently, Harare province attended the Youth and Women's League Conference as observers without voting rights because the two rival camps failed to agree on the names of the candidates who should attend the conferences.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 The Herald. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
