Ahead of tomorrow’s by-elections in Harare East and Mount Pleasant, members of the Forever Associates Zimbabwe (FAZ) organisation have been deployed by the ruling Zanu PF party.
The organisation ran afoul of the law last year when it put up “Exit Polls” booths outside voting places, asking voters about their party and choice of candidate. The ruling party at the time did not publicly recognise the political organisation despite the affiliation.
Due to the resignations of Fadzayi Mahere and Rusty Markham from Parliament in support of Nelson Chamisa, the previous leader of the Citizens Coalition of Change, who quit the party citing infiltration by the ruling party, there were vacancies in the two constituencies.
In an effort to win the by-elections, Zanu PF has now disclosed that it has stationed FAZ and Heritage Trust members at every polling place.
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At a rally in Harare East, Ephraim Fundukwa, the party’s province vice-chairman for Harare, declared that teams of twenty people, made up of members of FAZ, Young Women for ED, provincial delegates, and Heritage Trust, had been despatched to each of the 50 polling places.
FAZ president Kudakwashe Munsaka declared that as the group is associated with Zanu PF and is prepared to support the party throughout the by-election campaign, there is no secret objective behind their deployment.
FAZ was formed in 2022 as a result of Zanu PF’s reform initiatives. This caused tumultuous party primary elections and allegations of vote fraud in favour of specific party candidates.
Opposition parties and observer missions criticised FAZ during the August 23–24 harmonised elections of last year, alleging that they were a part of Zanu PF’s vote-rigging apparatus.