VOTER apathy marred the Chimanimani East Ward 13 local authority by-election, with only 20% of registered voters taking part in the poll which, was won by a Zanu PF candidate at the weekend.
BY KENNETH NYANGANI
Five candidates competed in the race for the ticket to represent the ward in the local municipality.
Just over 1 000 voters participated in the election where 5 011 voters were registered.
Ronnie Chimbarare from Zanu PF won the by-election after amassing 467 votes, while independent candidate Muchuura Amini got 347 votes.
Antony Chikosha from People’s Rainbow Coalition got 30 votes, while Tapfumaneyi Mashandu from the National Constitutional Assembly got 37 votes.
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MDC Alliance candidate fared badly in the elections after getting only 92 votes.
Ward 13 fell vacant before the July 30, harmonised elections following the death of one of the candidates. “Zanu PF won the by-election and the turnout was low this time, there was voter apathy. We had dispatched our team for voter education last week,” Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Manicaland provincial chief elections officer Moffat Masabeya told NewsDay. “We had 5 011 registered voters and only just over 1 000 voters took part in the elections and it’s too low, the ward is big and normally 4 000 voters take part in the elections,” he said.
Zanu PF’s Joshua Sacco won the House of Assembly seat and the ruling party took the majority of the local authority seats in Chimanimani East constituency in the July 30 elections. The party won 19 parliamentary seats in Manicaland out of 26 seats.