Disputed interim Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) secretary-general Sengezo Tshabangu said the party will win the Pelandaba-Tshabalala constituency in today’s by-election.
Speaking to Southern Eye, Tshabangu’s spokesperson Khaliphani Phugeni expressed confidence their candidate, Moreblessing Tembo, will win. He said:
Campaigning was very peaceful, we were going door-to-door, which we found to be a very effective method of selling our candidate to the voters and we do it with the candidate so she can meet the voters face to face.
They asked questions and she answered, we also distributed flyers and pasted posters.
We feel the ground is fertile and we are very optimistic of a win.
ZANU PF Bulawayo provincial spokesperson Archibald Chiponda, however, said their candidate Joseph Tshuma, a former MP for Mpopoma, is not an outsider but is known in the constituency. Said Tshuma:
He is a known member of the Bulawayo community he is seeking to represent. We are coming from general elections and more by-elections, so we are prepared in terms of campaign preparedness, this is something as an organisation we are very used to.
The Pelandaba-Tshabalala National Assembly constituency seat was won by CCC’s Gift “Ostallos” Siziba in the 2023 general elections but he was later recalled by Tshabangu.
Siziba successfully filed nomination papers to contest the seat in today’s by-elections on a CCC ticket but Tshabangu obtained a court order to bar him (Siziba) and more than 20 other candidates from running under the party’s banner.
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