The Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) has postponed the official launch of its by-election campaign in Bulawayo set for this Thursday due to resource constraints.
Instead, the launch has been moved to Sunday where party president Nelson Chamisa and members of the national executive are expected to be in attendance.
Two parliamentary seats in Nkulumane and Pumula are up for grabs in Bulawayo province while eight council wards will also be contested during the March 26 by-elections.
In an interview with CITE, CCC Bulawayo Provincial Spokesperson, Swithern Chirowodza confirmed the postponement due to resource constraints.
“Our organising department has not procured enough materials for the launch,” he said.
Chirowodza, however, noted the postponement gave the new party time to plan how it could synchronise the mobile voter registration exercise with its political campaign.
“As people go to register we will have our campaign teams on the ground as well, deployed to encourage them to register and vote for us at the same time. We thought running these at the same time was cost-effective rather than having separate programmes where we look for lunch and transport money but could combine these campaigns,” he said.
The provincial spokesperson indicated it was not a crime to take advantage of the mobile registration centres to carry out their campaigns as those were not polling stations.
“These are voter registration centres, not a polling station where there are laws against any political campaign taking place there. Door to door vote education and registration by political parties is allowed and we will take advantage of that. It’s not like a polling station where there are certain parameters that one is subjected to,” Chirowodza said.
As a result, the provincial party spokesperson said CCC had already mobilised teams to start conducting a door to door campaign from this Thursday.
“We are also reacting to news of the slow and low voter turnout at mobile voter registration centres since it started so we want to encourage people to go register so they can be able to vote,” he said.
Chirowodza also castigated the police for summoning some of the party’s provincial executives after ZRP learnt that they were planning to hold a car rally.
“We are not happy with the police harassing our members. Somehow the police got wind that we were planning a car rally soon and summoned our members who were subjected to interrogations. As a political party gearing up for elections we are supposed to campaign freely,” said the CCC provincial spokesperson.
The council seats that are vacant are:
Ward 8: Barbourfields, Mzilikazi, Nguboyenja, Thorngrove Infill including Burombo Flats,
Ward 9 : Mpopoma, Matshobana, Kelvin North 2
Ward 12: Njube Portion, Lobengula Extension 4, Old Lobengula
Ward 18 : Old Magwegwe, New Magwegwe, Portion of Magwegwe West (East of Intemba Road)
Ward 19: Pumula East, Old Pumula
Ward 20: Nkulumane 1 and 12, Kelvin West and East
Ward 21 : Sizinda, Tshabalala, Tshabalala Extension
Ward 26: Emganwini 1 and 2
