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Violence rocks Chiwundura by-election

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VIOLENCE has rocked Chiwundura ahead of the July 15 by-election, declared following the death of Zanu PF’s Kizito Chivamba.

VIOLENCE has rocked Chiwundura ahead of the July 15 by-election, declared following the death of Zanu PF’s Kizito Chivamba.

BY BLESSED MHLANGA

The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (Zesn) said in a report that the run-up to the elections had been marred by electoral malpractice, mainly voter intimidation through violence.

Zesn noted that numerous cases of violence had been reported in Chiwundura most of them being fights between Zanu PF supporters as infighting in the party intensifies.

Most of the violent clashes occurred during the Zanu PF primaries, where the increasingly visible factions in Zanu PF, Team Lacoste and G40, violently campaigned for their candidates.

Zanu PF will be represented in the polls by Brown Ndlovu.

“The political environment in Chiwundura constituency is relatively tense with numerous reports of political intolerance and violence in the build-up to the by-election. According to the May 2017 Monthly Monitoring Report by the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP), a day prior to the primary elections, a number of Zanu PF youths who had been paid to carry out campaigns on behalf of contesting candidates clashed near the Sino-Zimbabwe cement company,” reads part of the report.

An MDC-T spokesperson confirmed reports carried by Zesn that their supporter was caught up in violent clashes between Zanu PF supporters, even though the party is not taking part in the election.

“An MDC-T youth activist, Ashley Mdutshwa, was caught in the crossfire and left seriously injured after he was attacked by the same youths. Mdutshwa is reported to have been stabbed by the Zanu PF youths at Gambiza business centre on May 21, 2017 for reasons that are still unclear, but believed to have been political,” the Zesn report read.

The other political parties which are participating in the polls did not conduct primary elections with NCA candidate Takudzwa Guzete being chosen by the party’s board members so was Brighton Mudzviti of Free Zimbabwe Congress on the basis of his seniority as the national youth chairperson of the party.

Zanu PF Midlands provincial spokesperson Cornelius Mupereri dismissed the reports of violence and intimidation saying preparations for the elections were peaceful.

“We are for peace and we have a support base that is deep, the party will win this election as emphatically as we prepare for the 2018 elections in which we will thump the opposition,” he said.