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Sydney Kawadza Mash West Bureau Chief
The Zanu-PF Mashonaland West leadership has applauded members for a commendable show during the July 30 harmonised elections.

The ruling party won 17 out of the 22 National Assembly seats, with four going to the MDC Alliance and one to an independent candidate.

The MDC Alliance captured the urban votes in Chinhoyi Urban, Kadoma Central, Chegutu West and Kariba while Mr Temba Mliswa, the independent, captured the Norton constituency.

In an interview, Zanu-PF provincial chairman Cde Ziyambi Ziyambi said the ruling party in Mashonaland West had performed exceptionally well on the back of challenges that it faced ahead of the national polls.

“Mashonaland West, against all odds, performed extremely well better than other provinces were the former president (Mr Robert Mugabe) was not resident,” he said.

“In Mashonaland West, there were a lot of resources that were put in place by our detractors but our performance was quite amazing.”

Cde Ziyambi said no one expected Zanu-PF to retain all seats in Zvimba District, ex-president Mugabe’s district of origin, but swept them all.

“This includes Zvimba East, where a ward that had 18 000 registered voters, that is Ward 35, which is in Harare, we managed to take the constituency,” he said.

Cde Ziyambi said the party leadership would also take lessons from the July 30 plebiscite.

“We are a party that is in transition,” he said. “What we have observed is that we need now to go back and restructure the party to ensure that loyal party cadres hold positions particularly at district level.

“I know in Zvimba and some areas we had several district chairpersons who were election agents for the opposition. We were surprised when we were getting to the polling stations, somebody you were giving the task of organising a meeting for you being an election agent of the opposition.”

Cde Ziyambi said the party would have an introspection to see whether some of the leaders still carry the mandate of the people.

“We have very good statistics for action and I think we are going to use that,” he said. “Particularly in view of the fact that it was polling station-based voting.

“This we should be able to strengthen our party and come up with our structures to ensure that come 2023 we will win the election better than what we did.” Cde Ziyambi, who is also the Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, also dismissed allegations of rigging.

“My response is that it is nonsensical in that at each and every polling station everyone was allowed and afforded an opportunity to have an election agent and when the counting started there was verification,” he said.

“When the results were counted at the polling station they were transmitted in the presence of the election agents to the ward collection centre and to the constituency election centre.”

Cde Ziyambi said the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission was trying to produce the best possible results leading into some delays.

“The ZEC has been trying to do it extremely well that the process become very slow and that’s the reason why you see results were slowly tricking in,” he said.

“They wanted to make sure they cover all the loopholes that may arise so that there will be fewer complaints. I do not see the issue of rigging given the processes that were happening coming into place.”