ZANU-PF intensifies food for votes campaign as senate race approaches

By Tererai Karimakwenda
13 September 2005

Just days after Robert Mugabe signed the controversial Constitutional Amendment Bill which reintroduces a senate, there are reports that ZANU-PF is already using food to force opposition supporters to denounce the MDC at public rallies. The area most affected by this is Hwedza in Manicaland. Village heads are allegedly calling meetings ward by ward where they are making it clear that anyone who does not vote for the ruling party’s candidates in the upcoming senate race will not eat either.

Our correspondent Simon Muchemwa says the public rallies are being organised by war veterans and ZANU-PF youth and local officials.
They are allegedly targeting the most vulnerable residents in the wards, who are mostly AIDs orphans and the elderly with no other means of surviving.

According to Muchemwa, the Grain Marketing board in Hwedza has been given powers to deny food to any known opposition supporters and anyone suspected to be one. Angry residents in Hwedza fear that they might not eat if they do not make the public declarations of loyalty to ZANU-PF. And as Robert Mugabe has now signed the Constitutional Amendment Bill into law, the ruling party is campaigning to maximise their numbers in the new senate.

Muchemwa reports that this food for votes campaign is soon to spread across the country as we head closer to the senate elections.