ZEC lauded for clean by-election 

ZEC lauded for clean by-election

 

Hosia Mviringi

 

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has earned plaudits for the orderly conduct of the just-ended by-elections of March 26, 2022.

 

Speaking to the media yesterday at ZANU PF Party Headquarters, Spokesperson for the revolutionary party Ambassador Chris Mutsvangwa noted that two days after the election results were announced, no political participant has disputed the results or challenged a portion of the process in court.

 

He said that this was a clear acceptance of results and the whole process leading to the polls, and thus an endorsement of the credibility of the elections management body and its systems.

 

“The just-ended elections vindicated the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and poured scorn on allegations of bias by the fearsome losers.

 

If the CCC celebrates having trounced Douglas Mwonzora’s MDC Alliance, they must also accept their thorough thrashing at the hands of ZANU PF because both are results from the same process. One can not have their cake and eat it”, said Ambassador Mutsvangwa.

 

It is pleasantly surprising that all those activists, including respected Western embassy officials who had joined Team Pachedu’s smearing crusade against ZEC have all gone back into their shells and dropped the protest against ZEC after the elections, a sign that ZEC ‘s conduct of this election has all but shamed critics.

 

Ambassador Mutsvangwa revealed that ZANU PF did not control how ZEC operates and that is why the Party’s President and First Secretary Cde Emmerson Mnangagwa had to sweat it out across the length and  breath of the country canvassing for support for the party’s candidates.

 

He reiterated that if indeed ZANU PF had a rigging mechanism at it’s disposal the President would just retreat to his farm on weekends instead of bothering with campaigns.

 

To the contrary Cde Mutsvangwa said that the party takes elections seriously as it is an equal player as all other contesting parties who receive no special treatment from the electoral management body.

 

” ZANU PF will work hard for it’s victory in 2023. If ZANU PF were good at rigging elections we would just go home and sleep and wait for Election Day for Mrs. Chigumba to do the work for us. But as witnessed on March 26, 2022, the process is very clear and watertight. Every player has got to work for their victory. That is the essence of democracy,” continued Ambassador Mutsvangwa.

 

Cde Mutsvangwa noted that ZANU PF as the pioneer of democracy in Zimbabwe understands and respect it’s tenets and thus can not be lectured about it from shores yonder.

 

” We did not use the gun as a passage into power, but we used it as a passage to the ballot, which is where power is adjudicated. Thus no one should pretend to lecture us on democracy. It was earned by a sacrifice of sweat and blood,” he said.

 

Cde Mutsvangwa described ZANU PF as a party that embraces all election results the à la carte way, meaning that the party receives and accepts all election results, whether favorable or otherwise, while the CCC picks and chooses to accept those results which are in their favour while rejecting those against them, describing it as having one’s cake and eating it, or simply hypocrisy.