The four aspiring councillors: Muchaneta Zemura from Ward 16, Brighton Kanyama from Ward 11, David Rukweza from Ward 17 and Mathew Nyerinda from Ward 6 were elected in the recently held primary elections held in their respective constituencies.
In a twist of events at the Nomination Court, the party’s provincial Chairman, Alexio Musundire refused to endorse the candidature of the quartet saying that he had received communication from the party’s headquarters nullifying the polls that saw the four aspiring councillors get the nod to file their papers to stand for election in the forthcoming polls.
Rukweza, from Ward 17 in Chitungwiza North constituency, who garnered 119 votes against his rival Gladys Jena who secured 40, said he was shocked to hear that the primary election results had been nullified at the time when he was filing his papers around mid- day.
He said: “Musundire appended his signature on my nomination papers at the end of day yesterday, only to deny that I was the approved candidate this afternoon. I will not follow his directive because I suspect that there are underhand dealings to frustrate my candidature.”
Ward 17 Organising Secretary, Goden Nyandoro said MDC- T supporters were not going to tolerate the imposition of candidates because it had the potential to destroy the party.
He said: “Rukweza is the duly elected candidate and we are not going to let anyone impose their friends and relatives on us. We are the electorate and we decide who we want to represent us.
“If the leadership of this constituency take us for granted, then we are going to donate that seat to Zanu (PF). We will give mother (Matake) that seat to show them that we have the power to unseat dictators,” he said.
The party chairperson for the constituency, Musundire wrote four letters to Zimbabwe Electoral Commission officials sitting at the Nomination Court disowning the quartet to which one of the officials questioned why he had appended his signature on their nomination papers.
Musundire said: “They are forgeries. They scanned those documents and then forged my signature.”
In an interview with The Zimbabwean, Musundire however said that he was merely acting according to a directive from Harvest House.
He said: “The party made a decision nullifying the primary election results in these wards. I will not endorse their candidature to stand on the party’s ticket. They are not going to stand under the MDC- T ticket.”
The MDC- T reserved Ward 16 for a woman candidate and at a meeting held last week in the Ward, Muchaneta Chimuka was elected to stand under the party’s ticket for the post of a councilor after she had filed her papers to stand for a parliamentary post.
Her nomination papers were endorsed by the party leadership with both the required signatures appended accordingly.
However, at the Nomination Court, Musundire said he did not recognise her candidature and said she should stand as an independent candidate.
Post published in: News