By Staff Reporter

Losing Hurungwe West candidate, Temba Mliswa has described the by –election held on 10 June as not ‘free and fair’. Mliswa lost the seat to a ZANU PF candidate, Keith Guzah who polled 5961 votes against Mliswa’s 4 239.

Addressing journalists at the Media Centre on Monday morning, Mliswa alleged that ZANU PF had intimidated his supporters and many of his supporters had been turned away by officials conducting the poll.

In ward 16, 127 voters were turned away while 51 were assisted in voting. He claimed that over 150 people were assaulted in the run up to the election and during the election.

Mliswa accused the police of folding their arms while ZANU PF supporters perpetrated violence on his supporters. Several cases were reported to the police but the police did not turn up or record any of these cases.

The losing candidate who was reading from a dossier said that given these circumstances it was clear that the election could not be declared free and fair.

However readers online said Mliswa had no right to cry foul given that he had won these elections under the same circumstances in the 201 3 harmonised elections.

“Mliswa won the Hurungwe seat under the same condition. Zvarwadza now?” asked the reader.
Mliswa added that he would be contesting the outcome of the election in court. ‘We will succeed in court because our legal representatives have learnt from their mistakes’ said Mliswa.

He urged other candidates to participate in these elections as it was the only way to gauge if reforms were being effected. Participating would also make the opposition learn from their mistakes he argued.
The recent elections have been dismissed by many civic organisations as a waste of time. Many of the organisations argue that the government has not yet implemented the necessary reforms prescribed by the new constitution to hold free and fair elections.
Ends//