Online Reporter
ELECTIONS by their nature and at any level of society, are a delicate process often characterised by controversy, mudslinging, contestations and a lot of jockeying.
Elections are emotional, too.
The intensity of those characteristics also varies with the kind of interest, which the elections in question, would have generated and the players involved in those polls.
It is not surprising that the watershed Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) elections, scheduled for January 25, 2025, are some polls that have already attracted huge interest from among the prospective candidates, the electorate and the game’s other stakeholders.
ZIFA’s Normalisation Committee led by Lincoln Mutasa, which has been administering the association, has been tasked by world football body FIFA to also double as the Electoral Committee for the purposes of next month’s poll.
This is because the Normalisation Committee has been handling the transitional period that local football has been undergoing since FIFA decided to lift the nearly two-year suspension they had imposed on Zimbabwe.
Strikingly in this election, the first at the association since December 2018 when Felton Kamambo was ushered into office, the association, acting on the advice of both FIFA and the Sports and Recreation Commission, there has been a lot of emphasis and strict adherence to the electoral code which is being supported by the ethics and integrity checks.
In fact, the Normalisation Committee started the electoral process, being held under an amended constitution, by asking all aspirants to secure nominations from bona fide ZIFA affiliate members.
The build up to the elections then heightened with Mutasa on December 23 announcing the list of those aspirants whose candidature had passed the ethics and integrity check.
It was an onerous task in which some potential election heavyweights, who included legislator Farai Jere, Prophetic Healing Deliverance Ministries (PHD) founder and leader Prophet Walter Magaya, former legislator Temba Mliswa and ex-Warriors captain Benjani Mwaruwari were among those that fell by the wayside.
And true to the letter and spirit of an election some of those who were ejected from the race such as Mliswa and Benjani have indicated that they are going to contest their disqualification. Well, that is their constitutional right.
In fact, Mutasa and his Electoral Committee have been under immense pressure during the candidate selection process and will likely continue to endure more pressure in the days leading up to January 25.
Commendably for Mutasa and his colleagues Nyasha Sanyamandwe and Rosemary Mugadza, they have done their utmost best to deliver a fair and credible pre-election selection process.
Where they have been unsure, they have sought the guidance of respected legal brains and former Harare City Mayor Muchadeyi Masunda.
Masunda, himself, is no stranger to, sport chairs the ZIFA Ethics and Integrity Committee.
He has previously been a member of the Switzerland-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
So, after the pre-selection of candidates has been concluded, we now await a period of spirited campaigns by men and women seeking to be president, the two vice-presidents and the six ordinary board member positions that are available.
Those who make it onto the board will be joined by the chairpersons of the Premier Soccer League (PSL) and the Women’s Soccer League (WSL).
We believe that in all that will happen in the ZIFA elections campaign season and voting process, which has already been characterised by political skullduggery, it is FOOTBALL and not individuals, who will emerge the winner.
Zimbabwe’s flagship sport has already been through a lot and forgettable phase in the last three years.
The Government through the SRC has invested a lot into helping FIFA to normalise the situation and ZIFA as an institution cannot afford to regress.
Thus, this watershed election must at the end of it all, pave way for a quick healing process by all opposing candidates.
Soon after the game heals from the wounds associated with any election, must come the more important transformation of ZIFA, with a lot of work awaiting the new president and his team.
A transformation that will see the association respecting the Memorandum of Undertsanding (MOU) that ZIFA entered into with FIFA and the government through the SRC.
ZIFA also needs to win back the confidence of the athletes in this case the players, coaches, fans, Government, corporate partners and crucially to continue to receive the kind of goodwill the Normalisation Committee has been enjoying from the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and FIFA.
With a successful poll and a stable, viable post-election election era, ZIFA could be a model association which even FIFA could be proud of having assisted. FIFA have in some instances failed to find the desired results after appointing a Normalisation Committee, with problems persisting.
In other countries such as Namibia, FIFA had to appoint yet another Normalisation Committee.
But we believe members of the ZIFA Congress will rise above petty politics and eventually put football interests ahead of any egoist feelings.
The national team’s fine run in the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification campaign, and the decent runs by the women’s and junior sides, have shown what our players are capable of achieving where there is some stability.
This why we will once again emphasis that the biggest winner from the election mad season should in fact be football.
daglous masveta
