Party spokesperson Douglas Mwonzora told The Zimbabwean that more people from Harare, Manicaland and Masvingo – all MDC-T strongholds – had voted in the referendum.
“If the forthcoming poll is conducted in a free and fair environment, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai would be Zimbabwe’s next President. We will win resoundingly.”
He said there had been been a 26 percent increase in the number of people who voted in the referendum as compared to the number of people who voted in the 2008 elections – and attributed the difference to the lack of violence and intimidation.
Results released by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission showed that Harare had the largest number of people who voted in support of the draft constitution with 488,176 votes, followed by Manicaland and Midlands with 388,297 and 378,444 votes respectively.
In the previous elections, MDC-T occupied most of the constituencies in Harare and Manicaland while confusion over fielding of candidates in the Midlands province turned the tide in favour of Zanu (PF).
Masvingo, another MDC-T stronghold, came fourth, followed by the Mashonaland Provinces, where President Robert Mugabe hails from. Matabeleland North and South and Bulawayo Provinces had the least voter turnout. In previous elections, Mugabe’s party performed dismally in that area.
Zanu (PF) has dominated in all the three Mashonaland provinces in terms of popular support in previous elections, while the MDCs dominate in the Matabeleland provinces.
However a local daily claimed more votes were recorded in rural areas, mainly in resettlement farming communities that are controlled by Zanu (PF).
Zanu (PF) spokesperson Rugare Gumbo rubbished MDC-T claims of victory at the next poll, saying the mere fact that more voted from the heavily populated Harare area does not guarantee an ultimate victory for the Tsvangirai-led party.
“We will cross the bridge when we get there. A referendum and election are two different things. After all, most people voted for the draft constitution to support the contributions made by Zanu (PF).”
Political analyst Gabriel Chaibva said it was misleading to rely on voter patterns during the referendum influencing the outcome of a general election.
Post published in: News
MDC had the highest number of people who voted in all areas bcoz them dont want to use the old constitution in the next election, NO MORE SHORT OR LONG SLEEVE
but dont lie to people. you are going out to call people back to rebuild the country yet you are freezing civil service posts. you only want people to come back and vote for you
but dont lie to people. you are going out to call people back to rebuild the country yet you are freezing civil service posts. you only want people to come back and vote for you
Remember pple did not vote in their constituencies. come the general elections the voting patterns might be different.
but we should also remeber that the areas with more votes are urban areas and voter apathy is high in urban areas. one of the contribting factors being that people in urban areas do not even inspect the voters role and they dont register to vote. this is affects negatively for mdc due to high migration statistics in urban areas.