Categories: Stories

Tsvangirai ready to join a coalition as long as he is the presidential candidate

Three years ago, Zanu PF lied to the people and ran with the election message: Bhora Mugedhi. Indeed, it was an apt message as the whole nation is now crowded in those nets of poverty.

As a party, we have had two days of robust debate and we took some far-reaching resolutions as well as adopting the party’s priority programmes for 2017.

1. On elections

The party has taken a decision to prioritise election preparedness in the year 2017.  All our structures across the country, across villages and towns will collapse into a grand election machinery.

Related to poising the party for elections, the MDC will up its push for electoral conditions as a precondition to ensure that the next elections are free, fair and credible.

We are heartened by the developments in Africa, where credible elections are taking place and where sitting parties and governments are conceding defeat. Ghana and the Gambia are such examples, even though Gambia’s Yahya Jammeh is now singing a different tune after initially conceding defeat.  In our case, when a party in government is defeated, it withholds results for over a month to do what eight years ago it called “meticulous verification” of election results!

2. On coalitions

The executive and council restated the party’s position on coalitions, which is consistent with our resolutions at Congress where we said we would work together with like-minded parties.

The party, however, has today set and defined its principles for engagement with other parties in the coalition.

In this regard we will engage with and seek to enter into an electoral alliance with political parties who share or subscribe to our Vision of:

A society that prides itself for not leaving anyone behind in their pursuit of freedom, prosperity and happiness.

Anchored on our Mission to:

Create and nurture a democratic developmental state 

Continued next page

(508 VIEWS)

This post was last modified on December 13, 2016 1:16 pm

Page: 1 2 3 4

Charles Rukuni

The Insider is a political and business bulletin about Zimbabwe, edited by Charles Rukuni. Founded in 1990, it was a printed 12-page subscription only newsletter until 2003 when Zimbabwe's hyper-inflation made it impossible to continue printing.

Recent Posts

Britain says amendment of the Zimbabwean Constitution is a sovereign, legislative matter for Zimbabwe to decide

Britain says amendment of the Zimbabwe constitution is a sovereign, legislative matter for Zimbabwe to…

March 24, 2026

Who started the war?

It is now 47 years since I wrote the short story below for a South…

March 4, 2026

Zimbabwe 2026 monetary policy statement at a glance

Zimbabwe has released its 2026 monetary policy statement in which it seeks to stabilise its…

March 1, 2026

Was Chombo Mugabe’s number two?

Far from it, on paper that is. Ignatius Chombo was one of the longest serving…

February 6, 2026

Zimbabwe’s 2026 citizen’s budget

Zimbabwe on Thursday announced a ZiG290.9 billion budget with revenue expected to be ZiG287.6 billion,…

November 30, 2025

IMF says Zimbabwe’s economic recovery in 2025 is stronger than previously anticipated

The International Monetary Fund says Zimbabwe’s economic recovery in 2025 is stronger than previously anticipated…

November 8, 2025