Chegutu’s MDC mayor explains how he lost election to Zanu (PF)

By Tichaona Sibanda
07 March 2006

The outgoing Mayor of Chegutu, Francis Dhlakama, has described how vote buying played a major part in his defeat by the Zanu (PF) candidate Martin Zimani in the town’s elections held over the weekend.

Dhlakama lost by over 900 votes in an election marred by voter apathy. Only 5 570 out of 20 000 voters cast their ballots. He dismissed reports that he could have lost as a result of a divided MDC.

‘Not at all, I totally disagree with that because there was no other candidate from the pro-senate side. There was massive voter apathy because people have lost faith in the country’s electoral system,’ he said.

But Dhlakama was very critical of tactics used by Zanu (PF) officials who distributed maize-meal to Chegutu residents in the days prior to election day.

‘Maize meal was being distributed for free to people in Chegutu to entice them to vote Zanu (PF). Not only that, people would ask polling officials where they would pick-up the maize just after casting their ballots.
It’s clear these people were promised maize meal for casting their votes in favour of the ruling party,’ said Dhlakama.

One other problem that caused a headache was the number of voters turned away because most people had changed addresses as a result of relocating after operation murambatsvina.

‘The electoral process needs to be improved. If you are voting for a mayor you should be able to do so from which ever ward in that town. A lot of people were turned away because they believed they could cast their votes from the wards they relocated to.
I am not saying all those turned away were MDC voters but the verification exercise did disenfranchise a lot of people. They were either told their names were not on the voter’s roll or were registered in different wards altogether.’

Dhlakama said from all the evidence he has gathered so far, it was clear Zimani’s victory against him was not fair and square.