Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is set to visit all of the country’s ten provinces in a bid to bolster support for a boycott of next month’s senate elections, his spokesperson said on Monday.
The move by the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) comes amid a deepening crisis in the party, with the majority of members in the party’s national council in favour of participating in the polls for an upper chamber of Parliament.
”He’ll visit all the provinces,” said Tsvangirai’s spokesperson, William Bango.
He reiterated that Tsvangirai had decided the MDC would boycott the polls ”in the interests of serving his party”.
Zimbabweans are expected to elect 50 members to fill a newly-established senate on November 26. The MDC strongly opposed a law passed in August by members of President Robert Mugabe’s party that set up the senate, which will have a total of 66 seats.
Last week Tsvangirai told reporters that his party would boycott the senate election, saying that Zimbabwe’s electoral playing field ”breeds illegitimate outcomes and provides for predetermined results”.
But senior members of his party, including the vice president and the secretary general want the party to contest the elections.
Last week Gift Chimanikire, the deputy secretary general, was reported to have instructed provincial party structures to select candidates to stand in the election.
But Bango said Tsvangirai had subsequently written to the country’s electoral commission telling them not to accept any candidate from the opposition party.
He said that without Tsvangirai’s authority, no member of the opposition would be able to contest next month’s polls.
The charismatic MDC leader, a former trade unionist, helped set up the party six years ago. He has already survived several gruelling challenges, including two charges of treason brought against him by Mugabe’s government. He was acquitted of one charge, while the other was withdrawn earlier this year.
However, senior party officials are said to be unhappy about his leadership abilities. The MDC lost ground in parliamentary elections in March as the party saw its number of seats reduced to 41 from the 57 seats it won in the 2000 polls.
Tsvangirai at the weekend addressed party structures in Harare and its satellite town of Chitungwiza. Supporters there were ”very enthusiastic” over Tsvangirai’s call for a poll boycott, Bango claimed.
Although Harare and Chitungwiza were areas that already supported a boycott, Tsvangirai was confident of a warm reception in areas where opposition supporters wanted to contest the polls, Bango said.
”He’s very confident about that,” said Bango when asked if he could convince party structures in Matabeleland North and South to boycott the senate elections.
Meanwhile Mugabe said in Italy where he is attending the 60th anniversary of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) that Zimbabwe’s senate elections would go ahead with or without the MDC’s involvement, the state-controlled Herald reported.
”Senate elections will go ahead with or without MDC participation and even the infighting in the opposition camp would not deter the polls,” Mugabe reportedly told a group of Zimbabweans studying in Italy. – Sapa-DPA