Zanu PF primary elections set for February

By Staff Reporter

Zanu PF will conduct primary elections in February next year to select candidates to represent it in harmonised polls scheduled for next year after completing drafting rules and regulations to govern the conduct of the exercise.

There is intense speculation that new rule changes will see Zanu PF politburo member Jonathan Moyo being barred from standing using a requirement that only members who have served the party for five consecutive years are eligible. Zanu PF secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa said:

“We are considering holding primary elections in February. However, we cannot disclose the criteria that we are going to use now. Everything will be made public in February,” he said.

Last month Moyo dismissed reports he would be excluded saying “These good for nothing fools should know that what is important about rules is not their dogma but how they bend,” Moyo said.

“The fact is that all rules have exceptions in order to avoid breaking because a rule or ruler that does not bend breaks!”

“As a member of the party’s leadership, I fully and unequivocally support the rule in question because it is right for the party and in fact has always been there sometimes in spirit and other times in letter. Now the idea is to have it both in letter and spirit,” he explained.

Analysts say the new rules are designed to protect the Zanu PF old guard against ambitious ‘young turks’ who are challenging them. Commenting on the rule changes and other candidates campaigning in advance Mutasa said:

“As an organisation there are so many people who want to be considered as MPs and be leaders. They should know that by the end the day the party is led by a few people and not the whole gamut of people.

“In a constituency they should know that there will be only one MP. By the end of the day the losers should accept defeat and be ready to be led by the winners,” he said. Mutasa said Zanu PF was working hard to deal with factionalism ahead of the elections next year.

“The people leading the so called factions are people who do not accept that there are three people who are leading the party and these are President Mugabe, Vice Presidents Joice Mujuru and John Nkomo.

These are leaders of Zanu PF now. The people should observe the rules of the party and those leading the factions are wrong. My advice to them is they should observe the rules,” he said. President Mugabe has also spoken out strongly against factionalism arguing that it was destroying the party.