MDC-T By-election Candidates Blame Mwonzora For Loss
MDC-T president Douglas Mwonzora’s position is under threat less than two years after he was controversially voted the party’s leader at an extraordinary congress.
Insiders told The NewsHawks this week that MDC-T bigwigs blame Mwonzora for the party’s dismal performance in the 26 March by-elections where it failed to win a single parliamentary seat or ward.
Top MDC-T officials are allegedly pushing for Mwonzora’s removal, saying the electorate considers him a ZANU PF surrogate.
MDC-T losing candidates in the by-elections told The NewsHawks that Mwonzora was not marketable to voters due to his alleged ZANU PF links. Said a source:
The party members are not happy with the dismal performance during the by-elections.
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The calls for the president (Mwonzora) to step down have been coming from every corner of the party because most people have attributed the loss to his poor leadership.
Vocal MDC-T candidates include Norest Marara (Harare Central), Zivanai Mhetu (Epworth) and Fungai Chiposi (Kambuzuma). Added the source:
Candidates came back from their campaigns with the disappointing news and Marara, our candidate for Harare Central, openly told the executive in one meeting that the president was not sellable to the people.
Last week, on Mwonzora’s instruction, Mhetu and Chiposi were barred from entering the party headquarters in Harare.
Chiposi has since endorsed CCC leader Nelson Chamisa’s presidential bid in 2023.
Mwonzora has expressed his desire to work with President Emmerson Mnangagwa and had been calling for elections to be postponed.
This seemingly led to MDC-T’s loss in the recently-held elections and could mark the demise of the once formidable opposition party.
Meanwhile, MDC-T national chairman Morgen Komichi refuted claims that there are moves to push Mwonzora from the helm of the party. He said:
These are the issues that usually happen when political parties lose elections. We had a similar experience in 2005.
You remember MDC lost dismally to ZANU PF and people tend to blame each other on who has caused it. At that time a crew led by Welshman Ncube blamed Tsvangirai.
In 2013, Cde (Tendai) Biti and (Elton) Mangoma blamed Tsvangirai and asked him to resign.
We have to be guided by the party constitution. Unfortunately in our party constitution, there is no clause that talks about the vote of no confidence.
So it is unconstitutional. Unless people want to amend the constitution, we can amend the constitution in the next congress where we will include such a clause, to give the people the right to do so in between the five-year mandates.
