{"id":2548,"date":"2026-08-02T07:55:27","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T07:55:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thewasupost.co.zw\/?p=2548"},"modified":"2026-08-02T07:55:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T07:55:27","slug":"2548","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewasupost.co.zw\/index.php\/2026\/08\/02\/2548\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ZANU-PF Breaks Opposition Grip on Mutare Ward 3 in By-Election<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

By <\/strong>Fanuel Chinowaita<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MUTARE<\/strong> \u2013 ZANU-PF has captured Mutare Municipality’s Ward 3 seat, ending years of opposition dominance in the constituency after its candidate, Portia Gwinyai<\/strong>, won Saturday’s by-election with a decisive margin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the official Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) Declaration of Result of Poll (Form V11)<\/strong>, Gwinyai polled 760 votes<\/strong>, defeating independent candidate Innocent Mandava<\/strong>, who received 426 votes<\/strong>. Independent Farai Arutura<\/strong> garnered 95 votes<\/strong>, while Edward Mukambura<\/strong> of the MDC finished fourth with 76 votes<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The official declaration recorded 17 rejected ballot papers<\/strong>, while voter turnout stood at 26.5 percent<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Official Results<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  • Portia Gwinyai (ZANU-PF)<\/strong> \u2013 760 votes<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Innocent Mandava (Independent)<\/strong> \u2013 426 votes<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Farai Arutura (Independent)<\/strong> \u2013 95 votes<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Edward Mukambura (MDC)<\/strong> \u2013 76 votes<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    The result follows a by-election triggered by the death of Ward 3 councillor Tichaenzana Maita<\/strong>, popularly known as “Taso”<\/strong>, about three months ago. Maita had won the seat under the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), a party that had traditionally enjoyed strong support in the ward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    However, the political landscape changed significantly following Maita’s death. The CCC did not field a candidate amid the party’s continued internal disintegration after its leader, Nelson Chamisa<\/strong>, announced a sabbatical from active politics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Instead, two candidates aligned with Chamisa’s political camp contested as independents. Innocent Mandava<\/strong> and Farai Arutura<\/strong> both sought the seat separately after failing to agree on a single opposition candidate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Even if the votes of the two independent candidates had been combined, they would have totalled 521 votes<\/strong>, still falling well short of Gwinyai’s 760 votes<\/strong>, indicating that ZANU-PF’s victory extended beyond a split opposition vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The outcome marks a significant political breakthrough for the ruling party in a ward that has historically voted for opposition candidates and may reshape the political dynamics in Mutare ahead of future elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The by-election was held after ZEC announced polling for Ward 3 following the successful nomination of four candidates at the nomination court. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    ZANU-PF Breaks Opposition Grip on Mutare Ward 3 in By-Election By Fanuel Chinowaita MUTARE \u2013 ZANU-PF has captured Mutare Municipality’s Ward 3 seat, ending years of opposition dominance in the constituency after its candidate, Portia Gwinyai, won Saturday’s by-election with a decisive margin. According to the official Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) Declaration of Result of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewasupost.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewasupost.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewasupost.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewasupost.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewasupost.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2548"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thewasupost.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2549,"href":"https:\/\/thewasupost.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2548\/revisions\/2549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewasupost.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewasupost.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewasupost.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}