THE Nelson Chamisa-led MDC-T has deferred its primary
elections to next week to allow constituencies with more than one candidate to
reach consensus and minimise the number of contested seats.
The party’s primary elections had initially been slated for
Friday last week.
The opposition party is trying to avoid the chaos that
characterised the just-ended Zanu PF primary elections, which were marred by
electoral irregularities.
A source in the MDC-T’s electoral directorate said the
actual voting would start on
May 17.
“The process begins with the party announcing tomorrow
(today) the list of candidates who have been approved to take part in the
primary elections. After that, candidates will be encouraged to engage in
consensus building in areas where people agree primary elections can be
avoided,” the source said.
Insiders said the MDC-T had taken into consideration the
youth and women’s quota in coming up with the list to avoid youth and women
being muscled out at primary elections level.
The party has reserved 20% of the contested constituencies
for the youth quota, while 50% has been reserved for women, who are also
allowed to contest and get more that 50% if they can beat men in the other 50%
which is not reserved.
MDC-T secretary for elections, Murisi Zwizwai, could
neither confirm nor deny the development yesterday, only saying the party now
had a list of candidates and a road map for the primaries.
“We are going to announce that list tomorrow at Morgan
Richard Tsvangirai House and at that Press conference, all the issues will be
addressed. We have a road map and what is going to be done. The date and the
logistics will be announced tomorrow (today),” he said. Newsday
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