Chamisa’s optimism to beat Mnangagwa in next year’s elections might be misplaced

A recent study of the voters’ roll by activist group Pachedu revealed that rigging National Assembly election results is a simple matter of ZANU-PF identifying marginal seats from 2018 and 2022 and then, working with its membership list and the ever-helpful ZEC, moving ZANU-PF voters from nearby safe seats to the marginal seats.

Pachedu’s analysis suggests this rigging modus operandi is already in effect.

One such marginal constituency is Kwekwe Central – won by the opposition in 2018 but “mistakenly” allocated to ZANU-PF by the ZEC.

The ZEC has moved thousands of voters there from the ZANU-PF safe seat of Mbire, where they were registered in 2018, ahead of the 2023 polls.

But, if this is the plan, it failed for 2022, as the opposition won Kwekwe Central in the by-election.

This might merely encourage the ZEC and ZANU-PF to register even more ZANU-PF supporters in the constituency, having learned from the by-election “test run” that another 4,000 supporters are needed to capture the vital seat.

By Derek Matyszak for ISS TODAY

Ed: While this story says ZANU-PF was allocated the Kwekwe Central seat by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission after the 2018 elections by mistake, The Insider, believes this is a mistake. The Kwekwe Central seat was won by Masango Matambanadzo of the National Patriotic Front which was aligned to former President Robert Mugabe. He retained that seat until his death in July 2020. The seat that was won by the Movement for Democratic Change Alliance but allocated to ZANU-PF by mistake was the Chegutu West seat won by Gift Konjana but given to Dexter Nduna who still holds the seat due to a technicality.

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