TellZim Reporter
The Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) lost Masvingo Municipality ward 2 seat to Zanu PF in the just ended by-election mainly to voter apathy coupled with double candidate in the same ward after 2199 voters who voted in the same ward in August failed to turn up for the poll.
In August 23 election, a total of 3629 valid votes were recorded but barely four months later, only 1430 people voted putting CCC and its candidate Shantiel Chiwara at a disadvantage.
Some party senior members said they attributed the loss to voter apathy which they claimed was caused by the media, courts and the Zimbabwe Electoral commission which told people that recalled candidates were not going to contest.
One senior member Mandi Matutu said ZEC and the public media were to blame since they said the recalled candidates were not going to contest and that demoralized people that’s why there was low voter turnout.
“The public media and ZEC are to blame, they told people that those who were recalled were not going to contest so people were discouraged and our efforts to mobilize hit a snag and a few people voted.
Another challenge was that one of the candidates told people that it was pointless to vote for Shantiel Chiwara as he had the power to influence her second recall,” said Matutu
He went on to say they were also affected by double candidate in name where the other candidate got 90 votes which could have made a difference.
“We had a double candidate, thats another factor, though it was double candidate in name only, it costed us. Our official candidate was Chiwara but another candidate (Roki Kamuzonda) used unorthodox means to get on the ballot.
We also had another one who stood as independent, he was one of us up to the August 23 elections. So since people were told that Chiwara could be recalled, some voted for those two,” said Matutu
Another senior member said they had mobilized well but people were demoralized by the fact that their favourite candidate was not on the ballot.
“We had 100 focal point persons and had agreed that each was going to mobilize 10 voters which means we had 1000 voters already. However, on the voting day, we called our focal persons to confirm and most of them said they could not go to vote saying it was a waste of time.
I even asked one to at least mobilize his people to go and vote but he gave me their numbers and said I could call them on my own and was left stranded. I called other leaders who told me they were getting similar responses like people had been coached,” said the senior member.
Another one who also refused to be named said Farai Chinobva was behind the voter apathy after he attacked those who failed to come for the campaign launch saying they belonged to Sengezo Tshabangu faction.
“Chinobva contributed to Chiwara’s loss as he angered people, councilors and other leaders with his utterances when he said those who failed to attend the launch belonged to Tshabangu faction. That demoralized many people who retreated to back benches and watched from afar,” said the source.
Effort to get a comment from Chinobva were futile by time of writing as his cell went unanswered several times.
However, he had earlier told TellZim News that what he meant when he said those who did not attend the launch were Tshabangu people was that those who wanted to join Tshabangu were free to do so.
“Failure by some councilors to attend the launch was their individual choices, some even send apologies that they had gone for funeral, church and other commitments, so we don’t have any problems with our councilors, however, what I meant that day was that those who want to join Tshabangu were free to do so,” said Chinoba
The election came about after the recall of Shantiel Chiwara who broke record of being the youngest female Mayor in Masvingo and the youngest female Councilor in Zimbabwe
Zanu PF’s Benson Hwata defeated Chiwara with 37 votes having garnered 612 votes and Chiwara got 585 votes.
The other two candidates, Frank Chirairo, a CCC member who contested as independent polled 143 votes while another CCC candidate and former Councilor Kamuzonda got 90 votes.
In August, Chiwara defeated Hwata with 983 votes having polled 2287 with Hwata getting 1304. Anderson Paradza got 21 votes and Charity Shoko of DUZ getting only 17 votes.
