The time to test the Zifa Congress, whether it has changed from its corrupt practices, arrives next Saturday, January 25, when its 78 members gather to elect the entire leadership of the Zimbabwe Football Association.
If the elections manage go ahead as planned, this will be the first real test for the Congress to elect football leaders without any complaints following allegations of vote-buying and vote-selling in elections that brought to power Cuthbert Dube, Phillip Chiyangwa and Felton Kamambo.
In fact, the last real and credible Zifa elections were held way back in 2006 when Wellington Nyatanga ascended to power and since then, the Congress has been accused of receiving huge sums of money to swing the tide in favour of undeserving candidates while at the same time sidelining capable and competent football leaders.
This time around, however, it is hoped that things are going to change for the better following the inclusion in the Congress of the 18 teams of the Women' Super League, who are not used to the old corrupt tradition.
However, the feeling still persists that football leaders should be elected on the basis of the football programmes they present rather than on the background of their wealth or who is behind them.
Marshall Gore, Philemon Machana, Twine Phiri, Nqobile Magwizi, Martin Kweza and Makwinji Soma-Phiri are battling for the mantle of Zifa president in the polls with Kweza said to have invited the Congressmen to his birthday party on the eve of the elections.
However, with 78 votes on offer for the six candidates, one needs a projected total of 40 votes or somewhere around there to win the election on the assumption that some candidates do not get a single vote and the race becomes a two-man contest.
Should the votes be shared equally — which is highly unlikely — then the candidate would need only 14 votes to win, although 40 should be the target.
The same goes for the Zifa vice-presidential poll, where Omega Sibanda, Kenny Ndebele, Peter Dube and James Takavada are in the ring with the same voters tasked with deciding their future.
The same story also holds for one of the five women contestants for the vice-president's post Marvis Gumbo, Joyce Kapota, Loveness Mukura, Winnet Murota and Patience Mutumwa, who also need to guarantee herself of 40 votes going into the poll to feel comfortable.
However, the story seems different with the Zifa board member positions, where there are six positions up for grabs.
The return of Bernard Gwarada gives a total of 39 contestants for the six Zifa board member positions.
With the knowledge that each councillor will vote six times for the six positions on offer, the total number of votes is 468 for all the 78 members of the Elective Council.
If these votes are to be shared equally by all the contestants, it comes to a total of 12 votes for each contestant. So, a total of 13 votes will guarantee one of a seat on the Zifa board.
On that premise, one wonders why the candidates have been spending hours on the road on a country merry-go-round when the solution lies in convincing just 20 councillors to vote for the candidate.
This would be in the knowledge that out of those 20 councillors, one only needs 13 votes to make it into the Zifa board.
It has been a long and divisive campaign in which the Congress has to make a decision on continuity and experience under Phiri, Kweza or Machana or a complete overhaul under Gore, Magwizi or Soma-Phiri.
Inside Sport has been following the election manoeuvres and if it was to make a choice, it would go for experience rather than new wine.
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