Chamisa to finish candidate selection for coming elections by 12 May

The Nelson Chamisa faction of the Movement for Democratic Change says it will finish its candidate selection for the coming elections by 12 May.

According to Newsday, acting chairperson Morgen Komichi said the executive is meeting all aspiring candidates for the national assembly today.

They will meet aspiring candidates for council elections over the weekend.

Its main rival the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front completed its candidate selection last week and is holding its primary elections this weekend.

Its leader Emmerson Mnangagwa is launching the party manifesto on 4 May.

Komichi said the MDC-T would encourage consensus among the candidates, but if that fails, they would then go for primaries.

“If one candidate agrees to withdraw from the race, he or she will sign a letter of admission that they were not forced, but withdrew voluntarily. From Monday to the 12th of May, we would have finished both consensus process and the primary elections,” Komichi was quoted by Newsday as saying.

“This is our roadmap and we are committed on that. We are going to respect the wishes of the people on the ground and no candidate will be imposed. The most popular candidate will represent the party.”

The MDC-T is part of the MDC Alliance which comprises seven political parties and they are supposed to field candidates jointly.

It is therefore not clear whether the candidate selection will only be for MDC-T or will cover the Alliance.

The chairperson of Masvingo James Gumbi warned Chamisa against fielding candidates from Alliance partners in certain areas like Bikita for example.

The issue of the Alliance was one of the key reasons why Thokozani Khupe, who now leads another faction, disagreed with the late president Morgan Tsvangirai as she felt the party could go it alone and beat ZANU-PF as it did in 2008.

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