ZANU PF has won the Gutu West Constituency by-election, with their candidate John Paradza emerging as the winner. Five contestants participated in the race. Paradza received 12,147 votes, defeating the other candidates. Martin Sebastian Mudzingwa, an independent candidate, received 1,775 votes, Ephraim Morudu from Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) received 1,258 votes, and Robson Kurwa from the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) received 138 votes. There were 132 spoilt papers.
The by-election was a result of the death of Christopher Mutonhori Rwodzi, the husband of Tourism Minister Barbara Rwodzi, just before the harmonised elections on August 23, 2023. Christopher Rwodzi, who defied ZANU PF orders and resolved to contest as an independent candidate, died in an accident.
There was only one candidate, Paradza, who agreed to the election results and signed the polling station returns (V11 forms). The others had complaints about how the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) conducted the elections. However, both ZEC and ZANU PF signed the V11 forms, indicating their agreement with the results.
In the lead-up to the by-elections in the Gutu West constituency, there were reports of politically motivated violence and voter intimidation allegedly carried out by ZANU PF Forever Associates Zimbabwe (FAZ) activists. For example, a ZANU-PF member named Rashiel Bere, who is also part of the FAZ organisation, was accused of intimidating villagers and threatening to burn their houses if they voted for the opposition party.
In another incident, a member of the CCC was beaten by ZANU-PF supporters at a shopping centre in Gutu after being seen wearing a CCC T-shirt. The victim identified one of the assailants as the younger brother of ZANU-PF MP Candidate John Paradza, known as “Boss Para”.
These incidents confirm the findings of the ZimRights 2022 State of Peace Report, which highlighted that over 50% of Zimbabweans live in a fragile peace, fearing the elections.