The ManicaPost
Shame Isaki Post Correspondent
ZANU-PF will be holding its critical primary elections this coming Sunday and maybe as a way of trying to defuse the tension associated with the selection and disqualification of some candidates the authorities have tried their best to allow as many candidates as they could to have their day in the primaries.
I believe this was quite a wise move given the historical tendency of this important event to destabilise and divide the party due to squabbles emanating from how the candidates would have been selected while others would be disqualified.
Imposition of candidates on the electorate has been a major cancer in the ruling party and the call by President Emmerson Mnangagwa not to impose candidates on the electorate has been refreshing.
The National Political Commissar Cde Engelbert Rugeje has heeded his principal’s call and is stopping at nothing to make sure that this year’s primaries are as credible as they can come what with having candidates to sell themselves to the electorate at the same platform to the same audiences.
It’s a tough call for some aspiring candidates because there surely won’t be much time to convince and win-over the electorate but again it’s good because it reduces chances of unfair advantage over others especially given that some are returning candidates who are currently sitting MPs while others are in leadership positions in the party.
It is going to be dog-eat-dog come Sunday. While election fever over the primaries has gripped the whole nation given that these are the first elections in the new dispensation, the way some sitting MPs are showing signs of panic and distress following the opening up of the contest to as many candidates as possible most of whom are new faces.
MPs like Cde Chinotimba have earned the respect of both the electorate and party. That’s why they are not contested.
They have made a difference in people’s lives though there is some room to do more.
However, we are surprised to hear that two local sitting MPs are claiming glory for the construction of a footbridge which links Sakubva and Chikanga suburbs.
MDC-T’s MP for Mutare Central Constituency has been in office for close to twenty years, while Esau Mupfumi Zanu-PF MP for Dangamvura-Chikanga Constituency has been in office for the past 3 or 4 years and yet on the eve of a very important and decisive election they are in sixes and sevens as to how they can justify their need for re-election.
What it simply means is that such MPs have been sleeping on duty and now the chickens are coming home to roost. It’s a new dispensation and the electorate has learnt many important lessons from the past.
They cannot be taken for a ride anymore and any attempt to buy their vote by a few gimmicks like disbursing groceries and a few dollars will not distract their focus on what they want for meaningful change and development which will benefit generations to come.
Sitting MPs had the opportunity to serve constituencies but some chose otherwise, now it’s time to face the music. Happy primaries.
