adminMidlands Bureau Chief
ZANU-PF Midlands provincial chairman, Cde Jason Machaya, has called on all the party candidates who participated in the primary elections to put aside personal egos, unite and start working together for a Zanu-PF victory in the harmonised elections scheduled for end of the month.
In an interview on Tuesday, Cde Machaya, who is also the Midlands Governor, said the candidates who lost in the primaries should allow the healing process to take place ahead of Zanu-PF’s launch of its campaign programme.
“We are unrolling a programme to bring together the winner and the losing candidate so that they join forces and campaign as one party. While the primaries were important, the bigger picture remains the party. It is also important for the healing process to be speedily done in time for elections,” he said.
The party will official launch its campaign at a date to be advised soon.
Cde Machaya said Zanu-PF will soon be holding inter-district meetings in all the districts in the Midlands where the party’s candidates for the house of assembly, senate and council elections will be unveiled.
He said the inter-district meetings will start tomorrow at Senga Government Training Centre in Gweru.
“At these meetings, we will come up with our campaign teams composed mainly of the winning and losing candidates in the primaries. The teams will be campaigning in their respective wards and constituencies. We are also going to enhance our door-to-door campaign. Other sticking issues will be discussed at these inter-district meetings. On Saturday, the provincial election directorate will be meeting at Senga to map our campaign strategy. It will line out programmes and strategies that will be applied during the course of the campaign,” said Cde Machaya.
He said the Zanu-PF campaign will be underlined by a call for peace as by the party leader, President Mugabe.
“There will be zero tolerance for violence. We want free and fair elections. Zanu-PF is fully prepared for the campaign and is confident of winning resoundingly. The official launch of the campaign will be done in due course but the campaigning is already taking place on the ground,” said the Midlands Zanu-PF chairperson.
He expressed confidence in the team of candidates to represent the revolutionary party in the forthcoming harmonised elections scheduled for 31 July.
Cde Machaya said the party managed to field candidates in all the 296 wards for council election as well as the 28 House of Assembly seats up for grabs in the Midlands.
“We managed to field candidates for all the wards and house of assembly seats. The nomination process went on very well. We filed papers for all our candidates on time. I can confidently say that Zanu-PF is going to retain its stronghold in the province. This time we will win more than 21 parliamentary seats,” he said.
In the 2008 harmonised elections, Zanu-PF won 21 seats in the province while MDC-T got seven.
Online Reporter
derick.khumalo