Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. The ruling ZANU PF has postponed its primary elections that were scheduled to be held this weekend citing sheer volumes of applications.
The party’s political commissar, Mike Bimha, said ZANU PF Primary Elections will no longer be held tomorrow due to an overwhelming response by candidates vying to represent the party.
The primary elections are now expected to be held on a date to be announced after the Politburo meets on Monday.
At a press conference held on 17 March 2023 in the capital, Bimha said candidates who engage in violence will not be allowed to stand. He added:
We want to encourage our candidates to conduct their processes peacefully because the President is always calling for peaceful engagements.
On a question about allegations of vote buying, we have said those with complaints should submit them to the ad-hoc Committee set up to attend to those complaints. Genuine complaints will be looked into. All submitted CVs have been taken on board. It’s up to those unfairly treated to come forward. We won’t entertain third-party complaints and should be submitted in writing.
All the stationary and voting materials are in place. We believe everything should be ready by Sunday thereafter on Monday Politburo will meet to consider all the submissions that have been made. Once Politburo meets and approves candidates will be notified. We wait for the final say from Politburo on Monday. I can’t tell the day but it will be after Politburo.
Bimha said some areas saw 10 candidates applying for one position making it impossible to hold the primaries this Saturday. He said:
i). The national elections directorate can now meet to look at all the processes and make recommendations. They don’t determine who has been allowed or not. Politburo has the final say.
ii). Thereafter candidates will now go and stand and represent the Party. The National Electorate Commission will meet today. 2/2
iii). The security department engaged in vetting all the CVs and the work has just been completed. They are just doing the final inspection.
iv). The ad-hoc committee met and sat on various complaints that were lodged.
v). Submission of CVs to the provinces was done by Saturday. Usually, this has been done in Districts but this time it was in Provinces. The PED went through all the submissions and made comments regarding those that were recommended and those not. The Directorate looked at issues of rules and regulations such as age in particular circumstances.
vi). The process of collecting cell registers has been completed all provinces have submitted they are now being sorted for use during elections.
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