Zanu PF has suspended primary elections that were set for tomorrow due to overwhelming responses of party members willing to contest in the internal processes, party national commissar Mike Bimha has said.
The ruling party primaries to choose candidates to represent the movement in the forthcoming harmonized elections later this year were set to be held this weekend.
Speaking to journalists at the party headquarters, Bimha said a new date for the elections will be announced after the party’s politburo meeting on Monday.
“His Excellency the President has now agreed that we meet as a Politburo on Monday. This is a politburo meeting specifically to consider all the submissions that have been put forward and all the work that has been carried out so that they can then finalize on the list of candidates. Once that is done then we have to notify the candidates those who have to stand and represent the party and in the meantime we are ready in terms of the logistics.
“The ballot boxes are there the ballot papers are there ready and the people that are going to man the polling stations have been selected and training is ongoing to make sure that they know what has to be done. Everything is all systems go we just have to get the final say of the Politburo on Monday and once that has been done we will then carry on.
“I cannot say whether the elections are on Tuesday or Wednesday, Thursday or Friday but elections will be held after the Politburo meeting which day I can’t tell. The response is overwhelming we have seen women also vying for posts, not just the quota but they are contesting the men in those various constituencies which is also very interesting,” said Bimha.
He said much of the aspiring candidates had shown interests to contest for house of assembly, local authorities, youths quota and women’s quota.
Unlike in the past where candidates were only allowed to campaign after approval from the Politburo, Bimha said candidates had been given the go ahead to campaign to promote democratic processes in the party.
