Zanu PF’s campaign for 14 parliamentary by-elections slated for next month has intensified amid widening fissures within the ruling party.
This as President Robert Mugabe left the country Thursday to witness a peace deal in Mali, hardly three days after arriving from Russia.
According to press reports, Zanu PF political commissar, Saviour Kasukuwere, has engaged in a war of words with war veterans, who accuse him of allegedly trying to forcibly remove President Mugabe from power and imposing a candidate for the Harare East constituency.
Kasukuwere is quoted in a NewZimbabwe.com article as hitting back, calling some of the war veterans drunkards.
At the same time, campaigning for the five Bulawayo seats appears to be lukewarm as only Zapu and transform Zimbabwe are slugging it against Zanu PF among a number of independent candidates. Zapu is on a door to door campaign in the city.
In Hurungwe West, Zanu PF appears to be uncertain that it will wrest the seat from Temba Mliswa, who was fired from the ruling party, judging by the intensity of the campaign there amid widespread reports of violence and intimidation.
In Tsholotsho, some villagers are accusing Information Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo, a Zanu PF candidate, of buying votes by constructing 20 boreholes in the district.
However, Moyo’s campaign manager, Believe Gaule, tells studio seven the boreholes are not a campaign gimmick.