Compounding the issue of scarce resources was the decision by the minister of local government to cancel residents’ municipal debts right before the elections. Cancelling the debts served to relieve many people of extraordinarily high debts that they could not afford to pay. At the same time, by cancelling the debts, the minister also wiped away the major source of revenue for City Council, making it even harder for people’s needs to be addressed. Because the minister of local government is from ZANU-PF, which traditionally has less support in urban areas, many people suspected that the cancelling of the water debts was a political move to gain support in urban areas while bankrupting City Council, which is made up mostly of MDC members. By incapacitating City Council and making counselors unable to deliver services, the MDC could lose support in its traditional urban stronghold.[103]