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Zimbabwe's Elections 2013 - Index of Articles
Leadership
renewal spurs party in Byo: Gorden Moyo
Herbert Moyo,
The Independent (Zimbabwe)
August 30, 2013
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/2013/08/30/leadership-renewal-spurs-party-byo-gorden-moyo/
The MDC-T romped
to outright victory in Bulawayo province in the July
31 general elections due to a combination of vigilance and bold
decision-making which included replacing deadwood among its candidates,
according to the party’s provincial chairperson Gorden Moyo.
Bulawayo was
the only province where the MDC-T made a clean sweep by taking all
13 National Assembly seats in the elections in which the party performed
dismally, allowing Zanu PF to recover from its severe
2008 setback to win a two-thirds parliamentary majority.
Moyo said the
Bulawayo province performed well because, among other factors, they
had “listened to the voices of supporters during primary elections
and made changes to the personnel where necessary”.
“We had
leadership renewal in terms of our constitution and brought in new
people instead of keeping those who had been party candidates just
for the sake of it. We rang changes in constituencies like Emakhandeni,
Mpopoma, Magwegwe, Nketa and even Makokoba, and this made people
realise that we were serious about results,” Moyo said.
Moyo’s
remarks come at a time the MDC-T leadership stands accused of retaining
deadwood in some provinces by imposing unpopular incumbents like
former housing minister Giles Mutsekwa, who was party leader Morgan
Tsvangirai’s preferred candidate for the Dangamvura-Chikanga
constituency in Manicaland.
Mutsekwa lost
the seat to Arnold Tsunga, who defied party directives and contested
the polls.
However, Moyo
said their win in Bulawayo was only a “pyrrhic victory”
due to the MDC-T’s overall heavy loss which he attributed
to rigging, intimidation and disenfranchisement of many potential
voters.
He said the
“electoral fraud” which cost his party in other provinces
was also attempted, albeit unsuccessfully, in Bulawayo where thousands
of people were turned away from voting.
In his Makokoba
constituency, Moyo claimed Zanu PF bussed in army and police recruits
in an unsuccessful bid to capture the seat.
He said only the vigilance of polling agents prevented the stuffing
of ballot boxes by Zanu PF in the province.
Despite the
MDC-T’s call for a boycott of the new parliament, Moyo implied
they would take up their seats saying it was “necessary to
use every platform to fight Zanu PF’s electoral authoritarianism”.
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