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Auxilia Katongomara/Nqobile Tshili, Chronicle Reporters
POLITICAL parties have lined up mega rallies to wind up their public campaigns ahead of Monday’s polls with President Mnangagwa expected to address a bumper crowd at the National Sports Stadium in Harare today.
As stipulated by the Electoral Act, all political parties and candidates must wind up their public campaigns 48 hours before Election Day.
President Mnangagwa is the front runner in the presidential race and many organisations have predicted that he will win resoundingly.
The MDC Alliance has lined up its rally dubbed the Crossover rally at the Robert Mugabe Square in Harare while Dr Thokozani Khupe-led MDC-T will meet its supporters at the Amphitheatre in Bulawayo.
In an interview yesterday, Zanu-PF’s Secretary for Legal Affairs and electoral affairs spokesperson Cde Paul Mangwana said all was set for today’s rally.
“His Excellency President Mnangagwa will address the rally. It’s our last rally the Presidium will be there as well as Zanu PF top leadership and Commissariat .We are expecting not less than 200 000 people to attend because there has been massive mobilisation,” said Cde Mangwana.
He said Zanu-PF’s campaigns went on well and they are expecting nothing short of a victory. “So far so good, we are expecting a landslide victory,” he said.
President Mnangagwa and Vice President General (Retired) Constantino Chiwenga have led campaigns cross the country.
The President has during some of the campaign rallies also officiated at a number of ground-breaking ceremonies for projects set to impact positively on the lives of thousands of Zimbabweans.
The MDC Alliance is winding up its campaign with the Cross Over rally at the Robert Mugabe (Freedom) Square said spokesperson Professor Welshman Ncube yesterday.
“We are expecting the whole of Harare here and the key speakers are the Alliance speakers. Our campaign has been going on very well, we began in January, we’ve been in this thing for seven months now and we have been criss-crossing the country. We’ve gone back where we started. We think we have done everything we could, we have the energy and we think people deserve better than what they have now,” said Prof Ncube.
Dr Khupe said her party did not hold many rallies because it was operating from a shoe string budget.
“We are going to have our last rally this Saturday the 28th at the Amphitheatre where we would be demonstrating that we are indeed ready for the elections. We are more engaging than other political parties because we are going where the people are,” said Dr Khupe.
“It’s very expensive to be organising a rally because you have to be bussing people from all over. We don’t have that kind of money. We were operating from a zero budget, we were supposed to benefit from the Political finances parties money but we did not get a dollar of that money,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) commissioner Dr Qhubani Moyo yesterday said the commission has dispatched all the voting material.
“Political parties’ agents have been invited to come and become part of the process. Those that want to accompany the ballot papers where they are going; if they want to go there for three days guarding the ballot papers no one will deny them that chance,” he said.
Dr Moyo said Zec chairperson Justice Priscilla Chigumba is the only one who will announce the Presidential results.
He said political parties should refrain from inciting their members and allow due processes to follow.
“Until the commission has announced results, we encourage all people including leaders of political parties to stay calm and wait for the process to be complete,” said Dr Moyo. — @AuxiliaK/@nqotshili
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