Confusion continues in MDC-T as Mwonzora says party must hold extra ordinary congress to elect new leader

Squabbling in the Movement for Democratic Change continues as party leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s body lies in State with party secretary-general Douglas Mwonzora saying the party must hold an extra-ordinary congress before 15 March to elect a new leader to stand as the presidential candidate.

One of the three party vice-presidents Nelson Chamisa was last week appointed by the national executive to run the party for the next 12 months implying that he would be the presidential candidate.

His appointment, hours after the death of Tsvangirai, was met with a lot of derision as it was considered insensitive.

Mwonzora tweeted yesterday: “For the avoidance of any doubt the next leader of the MDCT will be elected by the extraordinary Congress. This is so in terms of the MDCT constitution.”

One of his followers bluntly told him: “open your eye sir Mwonzora. cant you see that Chamisa is the  man. if you still want to be relevant in politics support Chamisa. he is the most popular man in the MDCT.”

Joe Anderson was fully behind Chamisa stating: “I am 100% support for Chamisa; my wish is that they do it as per constitution and I believe he will still win. These decisions may have greater fissures.”

Raphael Goredema tweeted: “The problem it might not be free and fair. Enemies are waiting at the gates! They will do anything to get the party destroyed!”

But Bla B told Mwonzora to stand by the constitution: “Don’t be intimidated Dougie; fight for what is right and not the law of the mobs. The crowd that came to the Harvest House today came to mourn Tsvangirai; not to bless a coup. MDC must go to an elective Congress. There is nowhere an Acting President can purported to be candidate.”

There has been infighting within the MDC-T ever since it became apparent that Tsvangirai would not survive the colon cancer that was diagnosed in 2016.

Tsvangirai even hinted at retiring but the party leadership went on to endorse him as the presidential candidate in the elections set for July or August.

Mwonzora, a bitter rival of Chamisa at the last congress, told Newsday:  “The issue of who fills the vacancy in the presidency cannot be determined by the national executive or national council, but this can only be done by an extraordinary congress. This has to be before the election and before the 15th of March.

“If we allow the national council to make the decision of who is leader that would be trying to usurp the power of a body composed of about 5 000 and replace that with a body made up of around 170 members. It’s not logical,” he said.

Most MDC-T supporters have urged the leadership to bury Tsvangirai first and then carry on with party business.

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