ZANU PF wins in Murehwa South and Mutasa South shake opposition
Nevanji Munyaradzi Chiondegwa
The late National Hero, Joel Biggie Matiza who was MP for Murehwa South as well as Mashonaland East Provincial Chairman must be resting peacefully after the seat which became vacant after his death was emphatically retained by ZANU PF.
Youthful business man, Nyasha Masoka romped to victory by over 11 000 votes to a paltry 1000 votes for Nelson Chamisa’s CCC party candidate.
Cde Masoka’s victory saw him add over a thousand more votes to the 2018 victory margin for ZANU PF while Chamisa’s yellow-clad candidate lost 3000 votes from their 2018 tally.
However, Masoka’s victory cannot be attributed to mere belonging to ZANU PF, but can be traced back to a rich track record of hard work in Murehwa South.
So crushing was the defeat for CCC in Murehwa South that their social media page posted, “Vakomana ka, tichiri kure dai tirivamwe tadzikama hedu.”
Meanwhile, ZANU PF snatched the Mutasa South seat which was previously won by the opposition in 2018. The constituency, a predominantly peri-urban seat, was held by Regai Tsunga of MDC-A now rebranded CCC. Tsunga was then fired from Parliament when their party rebranded.
The victory by ZANU PF candidate Mugadza by over 500 votes showed the grit and determination put in by ZANU PF to win back the seat and build on that impetus to try and totally regain it in 2023.
The victory in Mutasa South courted the chagrin of scornful CCC activist Hopewell Chin’ono, who openly admitted to the mobilization supremacy of the ruling ZANU PF and effectiveness of it’s campaign methods.
“This result in Mutasa where @CCCZimbabwe lost narrowly to ZANU-PF shows the importance of getting citizens registered, door to door campaigns and getting the vote out!”
The overall ZANU PF performance in the by elections countrywide had many people sobering up and awakening to reality, with one CCC activist admitting,
“As long as ZANU PF is still getting significant numbers in CCC strongholds whilst CCC gets whitewashed in ZANU PF strongholds 2023 we’ll cry again till 2028.”
The net result from the by-elections saw ZANU PF extend its super majority in Parliament by two seats and actually gain more votes in CCC urban strongholds. With this reality sinking in daily, it leaves no shred of a doubt that ZANU PF is poised to extend its majority in 2023 with a much more superior margin than in 2018.
This led one social media influencer Setfree Nherera Mafukidze to say, “The just ended by-elections have shown me that in 2023 @ZANU_Official will most likely win elections even without thinking of rigging. People in Zimbabwe who are against ZANU PF do not vote while ZANU PF loyalists make sure they vote. Apathy affects opposition more.”
The clean manner in which the March 26, 2022 by-elections were conducted has left the opposition in Zimbabwe and a coterie of their Western sponsor embassies licking wounds and indeed at sixes and sevens as to how they could manipulate results come 2023.
As would be expected in the wake of such a clean election, the usually hostile Western Embassies as led by the US are yet to find reason to condemn the exercise which has left critics green with envy.
The run-up period to the by-elections witnessed flurry of unfounded accusations against the electoral management body, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) over what was then perceived as electoral bias towards the ruling party.
The two results have confirmed the supremacy of ZANU PF after the party came out two seats richer, taking its Parliamentary tally up to 147.
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