Chaos has marred the MDC-Alliance congress amid allegations
of massive vote buying by candidates and delays in the voting process while
party members endured extremely cold temperatures after being made to sleep in
the open at Ascot Stadium.
Two aspirants for the post of vice president, Professor
Welshman Ncube and Mr Tendai Biti, are alleged to have donated food to
supporters, a move seen as vote buying.
By the time of going to print last night, only two out of
13 provinces had voted, and indications were that the voting process would
continue today. The congress was initially scheduled to run from May 24 to
yesterday. On Saturday, MDC-Alliance leader Mr Nelson Chamisa told party
supporters his outfit had developed a culture of vote buying and imposition of
candidates.
He also bemoaned his party’s rowdy youths who have been
ensnared by some party candidates using beer.
“We no longer want people who come from nowhere or from the
top and take positions. We also no longer want people who use money to get into
positions. These youths are being bought beer and being given money. This is
the problem in my party. If you campaign you should campaign properly,” said Mr
Chamisa.
MDC-Alliance national organising secretary Mr Amos Chibaya
confirmed that Mr Biti and Prof Ncube had bought maize and beef respectively
for party members who attended the congress.
“Yes, it is true that Prof Ncube bought meat while Mr Biti
bought maize for the people attending the congress,” he said.
This move has been criticised by some party members as vote
buying. Mr Biti, Prof Ncube and Mr Morgen Komichi are battling it
out for the post of vice president.
Mr Chamisa is uncontested for the position of party
president after his sympathisers unleashed violence on Mr Douglas Mwonzora’s
supporters in the build up to the congress in a move designed to intimidate
them from advancing his cause.
Mr Mwonzora was battling it out with Mr Charlton Hwende for
the position of secretary-general, which he holds going into the congress.
Meanwhile, in a comical twist to events in the
beleaguered MDC-Alliance, an executive
meeting held last Friday exposed Mr Chamisa’s hypocrisy after it invited members based on the
structures of MDC-T’s 2014 congress.
Paradoxically, Mr Chamisa, who usurped power from Ms
Thokozani Khupe and declared himself leader of the opposition party a few hours
after the death of the party’s founding president Morgan Tsvangirai, was a mere
member of the executive.
The High Court recently ruled that the decision by the late
MDC-T president Mr Tsvangirai to hand-pick two additional vice presidents was
illegal, and directed the party to hold an extraordinary congress within a
month using the 2014 structures. Herald
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