Intense political gamesmanship has characterised Zanu PF Central Committee (CC) elections set for this weekend amid reports of massive vote buying involving top party officials vying for seats in the influential organ.
Sources within the ruling party told NewZimbabwe.com Thursday that some contestants were dangling carrots to lure the electoral college comprising of district chairpersons of the party organs namely, Women’s and Youth Leagues and Veterans of the Liberation Struggle League.
In various instances, sources claimed, would-be voters were gifted tablets, cell-phones and cash while others were booked at lodges and hotels to spend quality time ahead of the dog-eat-dog polls scheduled for Saturday.
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“There is rampant vote buying going on despite calls by President Emmerson Mnangagwa to stop it as it has a negative effect on the 2023 harmonised election results. Some district chairpersons got tablets from a certain former councillor who brought them from Dubai,” said the source.
There have also been reports of politicians paying for accommodation at hotels and lodges for their trusted lieutenants, who are then expected to cast ballots in the favour.
A named minister reportedly paid for rooms at Mazvikadei Resorts in Banket, where supporters have been housed since Wednesday.
Others were using private premises referred to as “safe houses” where they are pampering selected individuals in return for votes come voting day.
In one of the cases, a contestant slaughtered a beast for a braai party where revellers downed expensive booze amid sleaze at a certain farmhouse.
The Zanu PF internal polls will also witness big guns such as former Cabinet minister Webster Shamu, maverick businessman-cum-politician Phillip Chiyangwa, Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi and former army boss Runesu ‘Bombshell’ Geza battling it out for CC posts in various constituencies.