ZANU PF Mashonaland East provincial chairperson Daniel Garwe has castigated the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) for a skewed delimitation exercise.
Addressing party supporters at a mobilisation meeting at Murewa Prison Grounds on Tuesday, Garwe was recorded saying: “We can’t glorify Zec when it is changing boundaries like this. One who stays in ward 5 is now going to vote in Mutoko, you live in Hwedza and you now vote in Marondera Central. What kind of nonsense is that?”
“What they (Zec) want is that where you used to walk five kilometres to vote you now walk 10km or 15km. They didn’t consult us, they told us what they had done. That’s not consultation.
“They are saying Chief Mangwende’s area is now under Chief Chikwaka. They are fighting chiefs with their boundaries. We are going to ask the President to stop this nonsense.”
Garwe, who is also the Housing minister, professed ignorance of the recording when contacted for comment yesterday.
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” he said.
Zanu PF affiliate groupings on Wednesday also thrashed the Zec preliminary delimitation report.
Yesterday, chairperson of the Zanu PF Councillors for Ensuring Development (Councillors 4ED) Rodgers Nhari said Zec should revise its document.
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“The report is a great cause for concern to us. It’s too shallow to the extent that one wonders the criteria used to compile it. We hold the view that a delimitation report should never disregard the census report which gives proper demographics to enable delimitation to take place,” Nhari said.
Zec spokesperson Jasper Mangwana requested questions via WhatsApp, but had not responded by the time of going to print.
Zimbabwe Election Advocacy Trust director Ignatius Sadziwa accused political parties of intimidating Zec.
“Political parties had all the time for voter mobilisation, but failed to raise significant figures to gain advantage. Hence, they must refrain from harassing Zec which is simply applying an otherwise simple formula to map boundaries. However, registration centres need to be decentralised to constituency level for easy access as enshrined in the Constitution,” Sadziwa said.
