HARARE – Losing candidates within the simply concluded Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) presidential election, Philemon Machana and Twine Phiri, have condemned the ballot as “not free and fair”.
Machana and Phiri are alleging that controversial Zimbabwean tenderpreneur Wicknell Chivayo influenced the end result by shopping for votes for the elected president Nqobile Magwizi.
Feeling aggrieved, Machana and Phiri have taken authorized motion, submitting a grievance with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to hunt nullification of the election which they are saying was ‘scandalous’.
Their considerations comes after Chivayo made a social media publish simply hours earlier than the election, pledging to purchase vehicles for Magwizi, all councillors, and newly elected board members if Magwizi gained.
Additionally, he additionally promised to donate a staggering US$10 million to ZIFA ought to Magwizi win.
Magwizi went on to win resoundingly, securing 61 out of 71 votes.
This didn’t sit effectively with Machana and Phiri who’re arguing that the election course of was compromised.
“The election for president of ZIFA was not free and fair,” stated Machana and Phiri by their lawyer Method Ndlovu.
“…(Councillors) didn’t train their proper to vote freely; in different phrases, they didn’t vote in keeping with their conscience.
“A 3rd celebration, Wicknell Chivayo, who’s a outstanding businessman in Zimbabwe, issued a press release earlier than the election that he most popular 1st respondent (Magwizi) to be elected president of 2nd respondent (ZIFA).
“The third celebration didn’t cease there. He additional acknowledged that he’ll reward 2nd respondent a sum of USD10 million (ten million United States Dollars) if 1st respondent was elected its president.
“This was a transparent affect peddling by a 3rd celebration, clearly meant to affect the voting delegates to favor the first respondent forward of every of the claimants.
“This because the third party promised that 2nd respondent, i.e. ZIFA will benefit a huge sum of money only if 1st respondent was elected president and that the voting delegates stood to personally benefit from him as they would be given brand new motor vehicles if they voted 1st respondent as president of ZIFA.”
Despite the controversy, Magwizi was formally elected the brand new substantive ZIFA president, with Kenny Ndebele as male vp and Loveness Mukura as feminine vp.
The elected board members embody Kudzai Kadzombe, Alice Zeure, Tafadzwa Benza, Brighton ‘Panjap’ Ushendibaba and Thomas Marambanyika.
