NEW: Zanu PF goes to primaries in Gutu East today

George Maponga

Masvingo Bureau

SIX aspiring Zanu PF candidates will contest in primary elections today (Wednesday) to select the ruling party’s representative in the pending Gutu East parliamentary by-election.

The by-election will be held on a date to be announced. The parliamentary seat fell vacant after the expulsion of Mr Benjamin Ganyiwa from Zanu PF.

Mr Ganyiwa, who was elected the Gutu East parliamentarian in the 2023 general elections, automatically lost his parliamentary seat after being sacked from the ruling party.

Cdes Nicholas Chiname, Phineous Chagonda, Zvarevashe Masvingise, Maone Veremu, Christopher Mashuro and Nobert Chikumbo were approved by the Zanu PF national elections directorate to take part in the primary poll.

Zanu PF Masvingo Provincial Chair Cde Rabson Mavhenyengwa said on Tuesday that voting was scheduled to start at 9am.

“We have already taken delivery of ballot papers for tomorrow’s (today) primary election and voting is expected to kick off at 9 am at all the 26 polling stations that have been designated,” he said.

“We hope that if all goes well, voting should be complete by 4 pm so that we immediately start counting so that our candidate for the coming Gutu East parliamentary by-election is officially declared. We hope that everything will proceed and end flawlessly.”

Cde Mavhenyengwa said the ruling party wanted to celebrate Independence Day, having already identified its parliamentary candidate in the upcoming by-election.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has not yet announced the dates for holding the parliamentary by-election.

However, Zanu PF national political commissar ordered that primary elections to choose the Gutu East parliamentary by-election candidate be held before Independence Day so that the ruling party focuses on campaigning to prepare for a big victory in Gutu East.

Zanu PF won 24 out of 26 National Assembly seats in the 2023 harmonised elections in Masvingo, confirming its stranglehold on the province’s political landscape. Only Masvingo Urban and Chiredzi Central went to the opposition in 2023.