Twenty-six members of Zimbabwe’s beleaguered opposition party who refused to withdraw as candidates for this month’s Senate elections have been expelled, a spokesperson said on Sunday in a move likely to lead to a final split in the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
In a telephone interview, MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s spokesperson William Bango confirmed reports in the state-run Sunday Mail that the officials had ”automatically expelled themselves”.
Last weekend, the MDC leader, who has faced a serious challenge to his leadership over the Senate issue, gave 26 party members who had registered to stand as candidates in the November 26 polls seven days to change their minds or be expelled.
Tsvangirai is resolute against any participation in the Senate, but other senior party officials do not agree.
In October, the MDC leader overruled a vote by his party’s national council narrowly in favour of participation. But he managed to secure a vote against participation during a second, controversial meeting of the national council a week ago.
”When the council makes a decision and gives a deadline, if that deadline is not respected then they have to face the consequences,” Bango said.
According to the Sunday Mail, dissenting opposition officials have no intention of falling in behind Tsvangirai. Many of those who oppose the MDC leader are from the southern Matabeleland provinces, which have traditionally been hotbeds of opposition.
The MDC leader says participation in elections in Zimbabwe is useless because the current electoral system ”breeds illegitimate outcomes”.
But party members from Matabeleland are believed to be unwilling to let President Robert Mugabe’s ruling party sweep all the Senate seats without a fight.
There has been widespread speculation the six-year-old party will split over the issue, despite Tsvangirai’s promise earlier this week that he had launched an internal ”healing process”. — Sapa-DPA