Chamisa Barred From Organising MDC-T Congress

via RadioVop Zimbabwe – Chamisa Barred From Organising MDC-T Congress

The MDC-T top brass has barred its organising secretary Nelson Chamisa from taking charge of its elective congress set for this month, while a senior party official is under probe for ‘vote buying’ during a nomination process in Masvingo.The party has roped in the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions to organise and run the congress after the standing committee turned down moves to engage the Zimbabwe Electoral Commision (Zec).Douglas Mwonzora, the party spokesperson, on Tuesday confirmed that the standing committee met on Monday in the capital and resolved to bar Chamisa and his department staff from handling the processes leading to the congress.”During the nomination process, the organising department is not going to have a role, they (ZCTU) will accredit, do the balloting without anyone of us having a say because we are interested parties,” Mwonzora said.”There are a number of candidates, not only those vying for the same posts, but all candidates have raised concerns. We have also agreed that even the staff of the organising department should not be allowed to have anything to do with the process.”Asked whether nominations done in Harare and Chitungwiza would be nullified, given that they were conducted by the organising department amid allegations of irregularities, Mwonzora said the party was yet to receive complaints. Reporters were that Chamisa and Mwonzora, who are vying for the secretary-general’s post, came close to exchanging blows.Mwonzora clashed with Chamisa following reports that he had initially won Harare’s nomination to become party secretary general before a re-run confirmed Chamisa for the post.While Mwonzora seemed to infer that he had been underdone by the decision to hold the nomination process in Harare at a time he was away in Rusape for his political violence trial, Chamisa argued that the spokesperson’s presence would not have made a difference.The former Nyanga North legislator said while the party had considered bringing in Zec to take charge of the internal polls but given the chaotic nature of its primaries in the run-up to the harmonised polls last July, the idea had suffered a stillbirth.”The confidence of the candidates is important, we do not want an election that generates other problems afterwards,” Mwonzora said.