Zanu PF “announces” landslide wins for party and Mnangagwa

Staff Reporter

Harare–Zanu PF has won the just-ended elections with a two-thirds majority for parliament and at least 60 percent for the presidential candidate, party treasurer, Patrick Chinamasa, has declared.

The Electoral Act prohibits the proclamation of results by any agency or individual other than ZEC.

The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) on Wednesday arrested 39 civil society representatives who the law enforcer accused of gathering election results with the intention to announce them illegally, but critics view this as politically-motivated arrests.

According to a report by the government-controlled The Herald newspaper, Chinamasa, a former minister of Finance, was speaking at a media conference on Wednesday night.

That was despite the fact that voting was still ongoing in areas where the distribution of voting materials had been seriously delayed, mostly in Harare and Bulawayo.

It has not been established, yet, how many voters were affected by the delays that forced polling to spill from the scheduled Wednesday to Thursday.

“Now we have these results…I want to say, on the basis of what we have, we are on full target. We are on full target to achieve a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly. We are also on target to achieve 60 percent to 65 percent for our president,” said Chinamasa.

He remarked that they had deployed three polling agents at each voting centre, hence the speed with which his party received results.

On the other hand, Nelson Chamisa, the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) leader, on Wednesday claimed that his party had won and added that any other result was not acceptable.

The security sector, which has deployed police details and soldiers in some parts of Harare, seems to have been jolted into action by Chamisa’s statement, which was apparently interpreted to be a call for CCC supporters to protest against results that did not favour the opposition party.

Chamisa stood against Mnangagwa on July 31 2018 and, as results were being announced the following day, his supporters under the MDC Alliance banner then, poured into the streets, accusing the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) of rigging.

The army deployed soldiers who killed at least six people.