By Paul Nyathi|Under pressure ZANU PF has quickly reversed disqualifications made on aspiring candidates by provincial committees demanding that all CVs submitted by members wishing to contest primary elections be sent to Harare immediately.
The ruling party took the decision in a hurry on thursday after members from the provinces threatened to ensure that the party candidates presented lose the national elections set for July or August this year.
ZimEye.com sources within the party indicated that a huge majority of party members were not happy with the candidates vetting process that was done by provincial committees.
The vetting committees in nine of the ten provinces held seperate vetting exercises last weekend where a number of aspiring candidates were disqualified from taking part in the primaries set for the 5th of May.
According to the sources, members were not happy with some reasons given by provinces to eliminate candidates from participating resulting in them raising the issue with the party leadership in Harare.
“Some candidates were disqualified to protect some so called big fish from being contested,” said the source.
In a reactionary mode, the ZANU PF Secretary for Administration Dr Obert Mpofu immediately reversed all disqualifications requesting for all the CVs received by provinces to be submitted to Head Office for vetting.
In a letter to all provinces Mpofu advised that the party national electoral committee will do the final vetting.
“This letter serves to advise that leadership of the party has been inundated with calls by aspiring candidates who are claiming that their CVs have been thrown out at both administrative district and provincial levels disqualifying them to participate in the primary elections,” said Dr Mpofu.
“As the secretary for Administration, I hereby direct provinces to receive all the CVs of aspiring candidates, make comments and urgently forward them to party headquarters for vetting. The final decision on who qualifies and who does not qualify will be made by the party headquarters not district nor the province.”
Dr Mpofu said the party leadership was disheartened by the sad developments and wanted corrective measures to be taken immediately.
He appealed to all the provinces to cooperate and adhere to Zanu-PF rules and regulations governing the conduct of primary elections.
“Several candidates also swarmed Zanu-PF headquarters from all provinces complaining about their disqualification to stand by provinces. Leadership is disturbed and dismayed by this development and wants immediate correction to this matter,” said Mpofu.