Chamisa only targeted winning Presidential race – Professor Moyo

Harare (New Ziana) -Former Minister of Information and Publicity, Professor Jonathan Moyo says Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) leader Nelson Chamisa was naïve to only target winning the Presidential race in the recently held harmonised elections at the expense of Parliamentary and council seats.

Writing on his X handle (formerly twitter) on Thursday, Moyo said it is foolhardy for any political party to strategise and focus on only winning the Presidential election, without aiming to win the Parliamentary and local authority elections as well.

Moyo said for Chamisa to think that he could win the Presidential election even if, or regardless of whether, his CCC won a minority in Parliament, explains his crushing defeat.

He explained that an election has three pillars, namely the Presidential, Parliamentary and local authority.

“It is odd and even irrational, and it defies the logic of the harmonised general election for any political party that seeks power to govern the country as a whole to only target – as did Chamisa in the 2023 harmonised general election held last week –winning only one of the three elections, just the presidential election,” he said.

Moyo said such a strategy, if it can be called a strategy, renders the Presidential candidate no difference from an independent Presidential candidate, who contests for the Presidency without the advantage of the structures of a political party.

“Simply put, a presidential candidate in Zimbabwe cannot win a presidential election if the candidate does not have a campaign strategy that is based on his or her political party winning a majority of wards in the local authority election, and a majority of constituencies in the parliamentary election,” he said.

Moyo said Chamisa contested the Presidential election as if he was an independent candidate, and he boasted about it, without relying on his CCC and without any ground structures, further questioning how or why he expected to win the Presidential election by effectively running as an independent candidate.

He said since Chamisa had no grass root structures, worst still was also not relying on his CCC to win the Presidency, how then did he think that Zanu PF members and supports would vote for him.

“Was Chamisa’s presidential election campaign, for him an article of faith, in other words was it about his belief that God had chosen him, and that he would win regardless of whether or not CCC won a majority in the local authority and parliamentary elections?”

“Where did Chamisa and his supporters in Zimbabwe and among the legions of his fans in America and Europe think he would get the necessary number of polling agents to monitor the voting and vote counting at the country’s 12 374 polling stations, and to secure the 12 374 V11s from those polling stations, given the fact that he actually ran for the presidency as an independent candidate, expecting to be supported less by his own CCC party and more by the members and supporters of Zanu PF?” he asked.

Moyo further questioned whether such a strategy made sense to SADC Election Observation Mission head and former Zambian Vice President Nevers Mumba and his team, or to any other foreign observer mission that was in Zimbabwe last week, including the European Union or those from the United States that observed the elections.

“How did the various foreign election observer missions and Chamisa’s social media supporters expect him to win the presidential election, not only where and when his CCC party was losing the local authority and parliamentary elections but, and critically, where Chamisa himself did not believe that the local authority and parliamentary elections were important or necessary for him to win the presidency?”

“The fact that the loquacious, belligerent and inflammatory foreign election observer missions that are peddling falsehoods about the elections, and Chamisa’s social media supporters who claim with no evidence that Chamisa won, did not raise a finger against the results of the local and parliamentary elections that were declared at 1970 wards and 209 constituencies well ahead of the declaration of the result for the presidential election on 26 August, clearly means that there was no problem with two of the three elections that make up Zimbabwe’s harmonised general election,” said Moyo.

Chamisa lost the recently held Presidential election after he garnered 44 percent of the vote against 52.6 percent for President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

His CCC was walloped in the Parliamentary polls, garnering 76 National Assembly seats against 136 for the ruling Zanu PF, which fell slightly short of a two thirds majority.

New Ziana