Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. Former State Security Minister Owen Ncube has warned ZANU PF aspiring Members of Parliament (MPs) against getting more votes than President Emmerson Mnangagwa in the 23 August elections.
NewsDay on Monday reported that Ncube, who is the ZANU PF Midlands provincial secretary for security, told ZANU PF candidates that it is not permissible for aspiring MPs and councillors to garner more votes in their constituencies and wards respectively, than Mnangagwa.
Ncube made the remarks while speaking in Gweru over the weekend during the Mkoba North constituency campaign launch. He said:
So when we are campaigning, it’s the President first, followed by the MP and then the councillor.
So our votes should go to baba (father) Mnangagwa because he is the President, the party leader and he is the head of the train. Then we vote for the MP and then the councillors.
The President’s vote and that of the MP should be the same. We don’t want a situation whereby the MP campaigns with his name only.
Come 23 August, we are going out in our numbers and voting for President ED Mnangagwa.
Reports suggest that there are fears in Mnangagwa’s camp of a bhora musango (protest vote) against the ZANU PF leader.
Bhora Musango, a Shona language phrase that literally means “to deliberately kick the ball off the pitch, instead of scoring it”.
It was a clandestine campaign by some ZANU PF leaders in the run-up to the 2008 harmonised elections against voting for the party’s presidential candidate leader Robert Mugabe.
As part of the campaign, party members would pretend to be in support of the party’s presidential candidate during the official campaign trail, but would instead, not vote for him at the ballots.
Bhora Musango was used as a counter to the party’s official Bhora Mugedhi (“kick the ball into the nets”) campaign.
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