‘We thrashed them, let’s celebrate’ President ED Mnangagwa
President ED Mnangagwa

President ED Mnangagwa

Tendai Mugabe/Farirai Machivenyika, Harare Bureau
President elect, Cde Emmerson Mnangagwa, says Zanu-PF should celebrate in style for thrashing its rivals in the July 30 harmonised elections with a convincing margin.

The revolutionary party secured a comfortable two thirds majority after amassing 145 seats out of the 210 contested constituencies.
Cde Mnangagwa garnered 50,8 percent in the presidential race.

His positive showing in the polls was despite spirited efforts by some candidates to do a “bhora musango” where they urged people to vote for the National Assembly Members only and not the President.

Cde Mnangagwa reiterated that after bagging such a convincing victory, there was no basis for a Government of National Unity.

The President elect said this while addressing Zanu-PF winning candidates in Harare yesterday.

“So from 23 parties apart from three or four backed (Nelson) Chamisa but as Zanu-PF were were not in any coalition, fighting against the 22,” said Cde Mnangagwa.

“We beat all the 22. During former president (Mr Mugabe’s) era we never got 2,4 million votes.  There was a time when we really did well we got 2,1 million votes, so let’s celebrate.”

Cde Mnangagwa said measures would be taken against those who did “bhora musango.”

He commended Bulawayo province for performing well both in the Presidential and House of Assembly polls.

“I have been given a report showing statistics of the number of votes attained by the MP and the President in every constituency. I want to talk in general terms,” he said.

“There were others who were saying vote for the MP but as for the President just do what you think is good for you. We now know these people. What it shows is that such Cdes do not rely with the leadership of party. So such people should be retired and if they want to come back they should come back as full members of the party.

“What we want is unity from the grassroots level up to national leadership speaking one message. That is why we have party ideology. We should all follow party ideology wherever we go.”

On the violence that rocked Harare after the polls where six people died, President Mnangagwa said: “Yes, after our peaceful elections we encountered an unfortunate incident where MDC-Alliance engaged in acts of violence and burnt several cars, property and beat up people. We never imagined that there will be violence in our country because we were preaching the gospel of peace throughout our campaign.

“We voted in peace but we have this incident of violence by drunk members of MDC-Alliance burning buses and I am told that they wanted to lock up and burn people at Zanu-PF provincial offices in Harare. We had few people in Harare after others were deployed to man elections across the country. After noting that the situation was going out of hand, the police officer who was in charge in Harare sought assistance from the military.

“During the violent protests, six people died and we regret the loss of life in that incident. The police officer who sought military assistance did so in line with the provisions of the Public Order and Security Act but the matter is now being misrepresented on social media but the truth will not change. We, however, continue to preach peace in our country.”

The Zanu-PF Politburo met yesterday and commended party’s the good showing in various urban areas in the harmonised elections held on July 30.

The Politburo met at the party headquarters for the first time following the elections.

It also condemned the violence perpetrated by MDC hooligans that led to the deaths of six people and destruction of property worth thousands of dollars.

Addressing journalists yesterday, Zanu-PF Secretary for Information and Publicity Cde Simon Khaya Moyo said the Politburo also congratulated President-elect Mnangagwa for winning the polls.

“The national Secretary for the Commissariat Cde Engelbrecht Rugeje gave a detailed and analytical report on the 2018 harmonised elections results,” he said.

“During the deliberations a postmortem of the completed elections indicated that our re-invigorated strategy to capture the urban vote paid dividends as exemplified by the increased number of votes cast for the National Assembly members and the Presidential candidates.

“The Politburo noted with delight that the harmonised election were peaceful non-violent, free, fair, transparent and credible.”

The Politburo also congratulated President-elect Mnangagwa for winning the presidential election after he got 2 460 463 votes (50,8 percent of the votes), beating his main rival Nelson Chamisa of MDC-Alliance who amassed 2 147 436 votes (44,3 percent).

“The Politburo congratulated the President and First Secretary Cde Mnangagwa for being declared the President by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission of the Republic of Zimbabwe after his hard won elevation to the highest office on the land,” he said.

“The Politburo expressed gratitude to the numerous observer missions which have already declared the plebiscite free, fair and credible. In other words almost all the observers have given the plebiscite a clean bill of health.”

Cde Khaya Moyo said the Politburo deplored the violence induced by the MDC Alliance.

“The Politburo deplored the unfortunate violent incident on August 1, 2018, in Harare perpetrated by MDC Alliance hooligans causing wanton destruction of property including several cars and including regrettably loss of six lives when effort was being made to restore order,” said Cde Khaya Moyo.

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