Chiredzi South by-election results

By Tichaona Sibanda
19 February 2007

The Chiredzi South by-election has been ‘won’ by Zanu (PF)’s Callisto Gwanetsa. According to the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) the election was marred by voter apathy. But apathy is not quite the correct word for mass intimidation and a climate of vote rigging.

National director of ZESN, Rindai Chipfunde-Vava, said out of a possible 50 000 voters only about 15 000 cast their votes on Saturday. She said at some polling stations less than 20 people cast their votes the whole day. Only 29% of registered voters cast their vote.

Gwanetsa will now take the place of Aaron Baloyi, a Zanu (PF) legislator who died in September last year. Under normal circumstances Gwanetsa should not have stood for election as it is illegal for a serving army officer or a civil servant to do so. Chipfunde-Vava said despite information that Gwanetsa was still a soldier they were having problems proving the allegation.

But election observers in Chiredzi South saw him driving an army vehicle as well as using army resources to run his campaign in the constituency. His former boss, retired General Vitalis Zvinavashe, even threatened villagers in Chikombedzi against voting for the opposition.

According to a pre-election report compiled by ZESN, Zvinavashe allegedly said that if the people voted for the opposition they would be treated like rebels. The government would cut food aid and deploy soldiers to deal with such ‘rebellious’ residents.

Chipfunde-Vava said Gwanetsa took victory with 10 401 votes. Emmaculate Makondo of the Tsvangirai Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) polled 3 300 votes.
Nehemiah Zenamwe, of the Mutambara MDC had 674 votes, while Maekani Chauke of the United People’s Party (UPP) garnered 896 votes.

Eddie Cross, policy coordinator for the Tsvangirai MDC, said Gwanetsa’s ‘victory’ was a very predictable result in the circumstances. 70 percent of all polling stations in Chiredzi South had no MDC presence as their agents were denied access.

A statement released by the MDC information department described the poll as a farce and accused Zanu PF of vote buying and intimidation ahead of the weekend election. Zanu PF denied the charge.

Of concern also to opposition parties was the fact that the regime used erasable ink as opposed to indelible ink. As a result there are genuine suspicions that Zanu PF supporters voted more than once.