THE opposition MDC Alliance has failed to field candidates in at
least 90 wards countrywide, giving President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s Zanu
PF a head-start ahead of next month’s general elections.
MDC Alliance spokesperson Welshman Ncube confirmed the development yesterday.
“I cannot give you the figures off the top of my head, but we did not
field candidates in just under a 100 wards. There are various reasons
including individual candidates failing to provide up-to-date rate
accounts and the confusion on the day of the nomination court as well as
prior to it. In other areas we just messed up,” Ncube said.
He added that the alliance had also fielded candidates in 209 out of
the 210 contested parliamentary seats countrywide. Highly-placed MDC
Alliance sources also said the opposition group also bungled the
fielding of candidates in provincial councils with the most affected
being Manicaland.
“We have fielded candidates in all but around 90 council wards
countrywide. It is actually an improvement on the 2013 elections where
as the MDC-T we could not have candidates in nearly 500 wards.
“However, it is still an astonishing failure we pride ourselves as a
government-in-waiting and that the 2013 election had issues around the
security of candidates which we do not have now.
This time its an internal matter that has to do with lack of
organisation and divisions along factional lines especially related to
the MDC-T component of the alliance,” NewsDay heard.
The coalition led by Nelson Chamisa is seen as the only political
outfit with an outside chance of upstaging President Emmerson
Mnangagwa’s Zanu PF in the July 31 poll.
However, internal discohesion and confusion among parties to the
alliance has already resulted in its failure to field a candidate in
Insiza North constituency.
Chamisa this week said his alliance would now support a Zapu candidate in Insiza North. Newsday
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