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The last harmonised elections in 2008 were almost turned into a farce in some constituencies with Zanu-PF, MDC-T and MDC fielding more than one candidate in the same constituencies in about 20 House of Assembly seats — a development blamed on factionalism. Although some of the candidates withdrew just before the polls, others went on to contest against candidates from their own party with Zanu-PF fielding more than one candidate in five constituencies while four candidates withdrew at the last minute.
Meanwhile, MDC-T had more than one candidate in nine constituencies in the House of Assembly and four in the Senate. MDC, then led by professor Arthur Mutambara, had more than one candidate in three constituencies. This led to parties losing some seats after their candidates contested against each other splitting votes in the process. The development also cost ZEC administratively as more paperwork had to be done.
In a consultative meeting with political parties last week, ZEC Commissioner and University of Zimbabwe law lecturer, Professor Geoff Feltoe said the new provisions were meant to do away with situations where two candidates from the same party submitted nomination papers for the same constituency.
ZEC acting chairperson Mrs Joyce Kazembe said on Monday: “Previously, the Act was silent on the need for the endorsement by political parties, but now the law provides that they must bring the endorsement letters from whoever is mandated by each party to sign on its behalf. If there is more than one candidate in one constituency and only one has the confirmation letter, then the other candidates will have to stand as independents because they cannot purport to represent a party that has not endorsed them.”
We welcome the new regulations and hope that they will go a long way in eliminating confusion within parties and allow for order as only those candidates endorsed by the parties will contest. Political parties as organisations are guided by rules and regulations governing their conduct and it cannot be a free for all. Members of different parties should allow themselves to be governed and guided by the internal rules of their organisations and not act like misguided missiles because at the end of the day, they are working to advance the interests of their parties and not against them. As proved in the last harmonised elections, without guidelines and this new rule, some candidates tend to deviate from their parties’ wishes and their actions end up working against their organisations’ goals.
Without doubt, all the three main political parties in Zimbabwe scored “own goals” in 2008 with MDC-T and Zanu-PF hardest hit as they were vying for a majority in the House of Assembly. Zanu-PF — for long the dominant party in Parliament — lost to the MDC-T in the Lower House thanks in part to the Bhora Mudondo campaign which saw some of its candidates contesting against each other while others did not bother to campaign for its presidential candidate preferring to push their own agenda. The party, however, seems to have moved quickly to correct its mistakes and conform to the new ZEC regulations.
Yesterday, it revealed that it was working on guidelines that will regulate the conduct of primary elections ahead of harmonised elections set for March next year. The guidelines, which are being worked on by the party’s department for legal affairs, are expected to address issues to do with the imposition of candidates and factionalism.
“We are working on guidelines on how to conduct primary elections. The guidelines will provide mechanisms dealing with such issues as the imposition of candidates, which was being caused by factionalism. We have not yet finished drafting the guidelines but they will be completed before we go for national elections,” said Zanu-PF spokesperson Cde Rugare Gumbo.
The revolutionary party has also disbanded its District Coordinating Committees which were blamed for fuelling factionalism while President Mugabe condemned factionalism and called for unity in the party to ensure that the costly failures of 2008 were not repeated during an address to the party’s 90th session of the central committee last week. Zanu-PF appears to have taken the lead in ensuring that its candidates conform to the new ZEC rules and we hope that other parties follow suit so that next year’s elections run smoothly.
Online Reporter