Outspoken Norton Member of Parliament Temba Mliswa says it would be irresponsible to read much into recent by-elections results.
Recently, held local government and rural districts by-elections results have pointed to a surge in the support for the ruling Zanu PF with ruling party loyalists predicting huge losses for the opposition in the 2023 harmonised elections.
“It would be foolhardy for anyone who has followed local politics historically to read too much into the recent by-election results. Seldom have they provided a standard for new paradigms as the electorate doesn’t participate in them as in general elections.
“At some point we were expelled and in the resultant by-election the winner needed just around 2000 votes to win. However it was different in the general election as people were more geared,” said Mliswa
Meanwhile, Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), Fadzayi Mahere says the opposition party was performing above many people’s expectations.
“It won the lion’s share of this year’s by-elections despite violence, intimidation, banning of rallies, persecution of members, unlawful arrests, deprivation of resources & sponsored attacks. How many likes for the new CCC baby yatambudza Zanu?They dug a political grave for us. We emerged stronger. They fell into the grave themselves.
Mahere said the current election scorecard tilted in favour of the opposition movement.
“@CCCZimbabwe – 61% @ZANUPF_Official – 39% 2022 is a sign of what’s to come next year. We want to win an even bigger chunk of the pie in 2023! The citizens will win BIG!
“Even @ZECzim knows that @CCCZimbabwe is a new baby born on 24 January 2022. They, like the people, know that @CCCZimbabwe is not the MDC Alliance. @ZANUPF_Official is panicking to the point of denying the obvious! #NewYellowBaby
“Munoti “childish” but you deploy so much time, energy, state institutions, political violence, vote buying, money, rally bans, paid twitter trolls and hired ex-members to try and fight it. The truth is chakutambudzai. Chinhu chevanhu! Zvikambonzi hamuna structure zvozonzi muri MDC” Mahere tweeted
