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Cde Tshinga Dube

Mashudu Netsianda Senior Reporter
THE Zanu-PF Bulawayo Provincial Coordinating Committee (PCC) yesterday announced the names of candidates who will take part in primary elections set for this week.

Out of the five constituencies in Bulawayo, there will be no elections in two constituencies where Cde Joseph Tshuma (Mpopoma-Pelandaba) and Cde Godfrey Malaba (Pumula) sailed through unopposed.

In Makokoba, Cde Tshinga Dube will battle it out in the primaries with Cde Michael Mukarwa. Cdes Anna Moyo and Ntando Mlilo will square off in Luveve while Cdes Tariro Zhou and Maidei Mpala will contest the Magwegwe constituency.

Bulawayo interim provincial chairperson Alderman Dennis Ndlovu yesterday told The Chronicle that the recommended candidates were confirmed by the party’s national elections directorate (NED) in Harare.

“We recommended the names, which were submitted to us and the party’s NED has confirmed them because everything was done above board. We’re now geared to successfully hold our primaries between Tuesday and Wednesday,” said Cde Ndlovu.

On Saturday, Zanu-PF held primaries in nine constituencies in Harare, Manicaland and Midlands provinces ahead of the 16 by-elections set for June, 10.

In Harare primaries were held in six constituencies namely Highfield West, Glen View South, Kuwadzana, Kambuzuma, Dzivarasekwa and Harare East, while other polls were held in Manicaland’s Dangamvura-Chikanga constituency and in the Midlands province’s Mbizo constituency.

The by-elections were necessitated by the recall last month of 21 MDC-T legislators who had defected to the MDC Renewal Team. MDC-T will fill seven seats which it won on proportional representation in the July 2013 harmonised elections, but the opposition party has resolved not to contest in the by-elections.

Zanu-PF’s national secretary for the commissariat Cde Saviour Kasukuwere on Friday announced that primaries for the five vacant constituencies in Bulawayo would be held this week. Last week the party’s provincial leadership in Bulawayo disqualified some aspiring candidates for the primary elections. The Central Committee and Politburo members in the province resolved to disqualify party members who had submitted their names after the vetting process which was done on March, 29.

Thirty two party members in Bulawayo had expressed interest in contesting in the primary elections for the five constituencies.

Politburo member Sikhanyiso Ndlovu pulled out of the party’s primary elections for the Mpopoma-Pelandaba constituency, while Central Committee member, Cde Mpehlabayo Malinga, also withdrew his candidature for Makokoba saying his name was submitted while he was abroad.

President Robert Mugabe proclaimed April, 16, as the date for the sitting of the Nomination Court for the June 10 by-elections.