MDC leader Douglas Mwonzora has called on Zimbabwe’s opposition parties to unite to reverse their ongoing electoral setbacks.
His appeal follows the recent Epworth Ward 6 by-election, where ZANU PF candidate Civilised Bushe won decisively with 3,022 votes.
MDC-T’s Alice Nyahunzvi trailed with just 120 votes, while independent candidate Peter Nyapetwa secured only 23.
The Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), now led by Sengezo Tshabangu, did not contest the by-election.
Speaking in an X space on Wednesday, Mwonzora warned that continued fragmentation among opposition parties could turn Zimbabwe into a de-facto one-party state. Said Mwonzora:
“The poor performance is not confined to the MDC; it is a trend, and as the opposition, we must work to change it.
“There is a need to bury the hatchet. As we have seen, there is no winner in a losing team. We need to work together. If we are not careful, Zimbabwe will become a mono-state.
“Yes, we may want to score political points by mocking the MDC, which lost only one by-election, yet other opposition parties lost 45.”
Mwonzora also explained why, despite boycotting the 2023 presidential elections, the MDC fielded a candidate in Epworth. He said:
“ZEC produced a document called a strategy towards free and fair elections, so we decided to test ZEC’s attempted electoral reforms empirically. ZEC failed dismally in the test.
“There was rampant vote buying, as Epworth residents were being given food hampers on election day. We have video evidence of that. People were receiving EcoCash and being told to vote for Zanu PF.
“They also received threats from Zanu PF and were told that if they voted for the MDC, the 16,000 houses in Epworth would be destroyed.
“We, the MDC party, were given a soft copy of the voters’ roll, but it would not open. We made a formal complaint to ZEC, which did nothing about it.”
More: NewZimbabwe.com
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