Tsvangirai dismisses report that his party is going it alone in next year’s elections

Movement for Democratic Change Alliance leader Morgan Tsvangirai has dismissed reports that his party will contest all seats in next year’s elections saying MDC-T secretary general Douglas Mwonzora has no authority to speak on behalf of the Alliance.

Mwonzora  told Newsday today that his party was already on the ground selecting its candidates, with priority given to women and youths.

“There hasn’t been an agreement on the distribution of seats yet, but there is an agreement as to have an alliance,” he was quoted as saying.

“Therefore, our candidate selection will be for all the constituencies and wards until a time when there is agreement on the distribution of seats. When we agree, we will have to drop other candidates whose seats are distributed to other parties.”

Tsvangirai said Mwonzora’s statement was unfortunate, misleading and grossly untrue.

“I would like to state categorically that the MDC-T entered into an electoral alliance agreement in good faith with its partners on August 5 2017. That agreement includes seat allocation and is binding on all parties,” Tsvangirai said in a statement.

“The MDC-T election directorate will issue guidelines on candidate selection for seats allocated to it, and such guidelines are yet to be issued out.

“The agreement is informed by our national council resolutions of December 2016 and August 2017 and cannot therefore be rescinded by a personal opinion of a leader.

“The national council, the supreme decision making body in between congresses, has been appraised at every turn on the negotiations with our Alliance partners.

“In addition our secretary general or any other leader other than the president has no authority to speak on matters pertaining to the Alliance unless authorised to so by myself and such authority was not given to him.”

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