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The MDC-T primaries are now expected in a fortnight.
Some MDC-T officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they had been advised that the primaries were going to be conducted on Saturday, but communication advising them of the rescheduling was received late.
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Some provinces said they were not advised of the changes.
In Mashonaland West, East and some parts of Manicaland provinces, some sitting MPs, aspiring legislators and councillors said they had been told that primary elections would be held on April 20.
“We were not told why there were changes because the last we had been told was that they were going to be held on April 20. No reasons were given as to why they had been postponed. We suspect there is something the leadership wants to address before the primaries,” said a Manicaland legislator who requested anonymity.
An aspiring MP in the same province said: “I think the postponement was caused by some people who appealed against their rejection. If it wasn’t for those appeals, the confirmation exercise would have been done today (Saturday).”
Said a MDC-T councillor in Karoi; “We were told the primaries were today (Saturday), but we were later told they were postponed. I think there are issues that the leadership wants to deal with first.”
However, speaking to the Herald in Chinhoyi on Saturday on the sidelines of a peace prayer meeting held at Chinhoyi Stadium, MDC-T organising secretary Mr Nelson Chamisa, claimed no date had been set for the polls.
Said Mr Chamisa; “In a fortnight we should begin to roll out the programme. It’s not true that we were supposed to hold the primaries today. Those reports are false.
“We are going to do them in the next two weeks. We are still preparing our electoral colleges which I can say by now have been finalised. So we need to send them back to the constituencies before we go.”
The MDC-T recently disqualified 200 aspirants who wanted to contest this year’s harmonised elections on its ticket but gave the nod to a journalist, Mr Geoff Nyarota and two disc jockeys, Mr Ezra Sibanda and Mr Eric Knight who want to contest in the party’s primary elections.
The party has approved over 4 000 candidates to contest in primaries covering legislators and councillors.
Last week 42 candidates appealed against their disqualification and 30 were given the green light to contest.
It is against this backdrop that party insiders say it was impossible to hold the primaries before the party dealt with these cases of disgruntled candidates.
Online Reporter