Categories: Stories

Tsvangirai says “I will go it alone” if coalition fails

The Movement for Democratic Change led by Morgan Tsvangirai is ready to contest next year’ elections on its own if coalition talks fail, party secretary general Douglas Mwonzora says.

He, however, insisted that Tsvangirai was still all for unity.

Tsvangirai has signed memoranda of understanding with Joice Mujuru’s National People’s Party, Welshman Ncube’s MDC, and Transform Zimbabwe.

Mwonzora said the MDC-T was looking for genuine unity but some opposition parties were backbiting to spoil the unity.

“Morgan Tsvangirai wants unity of all people in Zimbabwe and he has a place for every person, but there are those who don’t want and Tsvangirai is saying ‘if you don’t want, I can go it alone’,” Mwonzora  said according to Newsday.

 Tsvangirai has given opposition parties up to the end of this month, which is less than two weeks away, to finalise coalition talks so that the parties can start campaigning.

His supporters are all for the party going it alone because it has beaten the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front before and are questioning why Tsvangirai wants to unite with parties some of which have no supporters at all.

But opposition parties fear that if they go it alone, this will split the vote to the advantage of ZANU-PF.

According to Brian Raftopoulos opposition parties lost 17 seats in the 2013 elections by splitting the vote.

(137 VIEWS)

This post was last modified on July 18, 2017 12:40 pm

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.

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