MDC Takes Mudenda Fight To Switzerland

The opposition MDC has written to the International Parliamentary Union (IPU), the focal point world-wide parliamentary dialogue based in Switzerland, protesting against National Assembly Speaker Jacob Mudenda’s decision to withhold its MPs’ allowances for walking out on President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

The letter was addressed to IPU chairperson, Gabriela Cuevas Barron, and signed by MDC chairperson Tabitha Khumalo, who is also the leader of the opposition in Parliament. The letter reads in part:

Our decision not to stand up and eventually walk out of Parliament during the opening of Parliament and State of the Nation Address, was our democratic right to express our long-standing position that the July 30, 2018, presidential elections were stolen, hence any beneficiary of that fraud ceases to be legitimate in our view.

To our shock and even with the understanding that the Speaker has the powers to call to order any Member of Parliament, was the harshness of his punishment of our Members of Parliament, which has made us reach out to your office.

MDC Alliance MPs walked out of Parliament on October 1 this year as President Mnangagwa was presenting the State of the Nation Address (SONA).

The MDC says it does not recognise Mnangagwa as the legitimate President of Zimbabwe following the disputed July 30, 2018, presidential elections.

More: Daily News