MDC-T To Pick Tsvangirai's Successor

In an interview with NewsDay, MDC-T Secretary General Douglas Mwonzora said the party is set to hold a critical extraordinary congress to fill the void left by Morgan Tsvangirai, who passed away last Wednesday following a two-year battle with colon cancer.

Said Mwonzora:

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.

Mwonzora said that anyone who wants to lead MDC-T must be chosen by congress just like the late Tsvangirai. This is likely to cause friction with MDC-T acting president, Nelson Chamisa, who last week was appointed by the party’s national council to replace Tsvangirai for the next 12 months.

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