By Paul Nyathi|The ruling ZANU PF party will today announce its final list of candidates to take part in the party primary elections next month.

The party Politburo on Friday approved a final list of aspiring candidates for the primary elections.

The primary elections are tentatively scheduled for May 5.

Zanu-PF national political commissar Lieutenant-General Engelbert Rugeje (Retired) will chair the Elections Commission that has been tasked to monitor the election process.

The party’s Secretary for Information and Publicity, Simon Khaya Moyo made the announcement on Friday after a politburo meeting.

“The chairperson of the Elections Commission, who is also the national political commissar, Lieutenant-General Engelbert Rugeje (Retired), gave a comprehensive report on the vetting exercise of candidates province by province,” he said.

“These covered senatorial, national assembly, women’s quota, provincial councils and local government councillors.

“The Politburo deliberated on all those disqualified by the vetting process. During the deliberations, some were given the green light to stand in the primaries while some had their disqualification confirmed. All in all, the exercise, though intricate, was a tremendous success.”

Khaya Moyo added:

“The chairman of the Elections Commission will issue a full list of all candidates approved to stand in the primaries tomorrow (today) and will call for a press conference. He will also announce the date for the primary elections.”

The approval of the aspiring candidates came after attempts by some provinces to disqualify thousands of aspiring candidates.

The party leadership then ordered provincial chairpersons to accept all CVs and only make recommendations on contentious candidates.