Capitalising on damaging power struggles rocking Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), a ruling-party legislator has urged Zimbabweans to vote for his party in this month’s Senate polls because it is ”more organised”, the state-controlled Herald reported on Monday.
Bright Matonga, who represents President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF in Mhondoro-Ngezi constituency, said the ”time has come for people to recognise the need to vote for Zanu-PF [because] it is more organised than the MDC, which has been rocked by endless power struggles”, the Herald reported.
The MDC faces an almost certain split after 26 members this weekend defied their leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, and refused to withdraw as candidates for the November 26 poll. Tsvangirai is bitterly opposed to any participation in the Senate, but other members of his party disagree.
Wrangling over the Senate issue has spilled into the public arena and is being closely followed by the government-controlled press.
At a rally this weekend, outspoken opposition MP Job Sikhala called the MDC leader a ”goblin” who made it ”unsafe for people to sleep”, the Herald claimed.
Tsvangirai is reported to have launched a last call for reconciliation at a rally in the second city of Bulawayo on Sunday, urging dissenting party officials to return ”to the fold”.
But some opposition officials say privately it is ”only a matter of time” before the six-year-old party splits into two.
The ruling party is already guaranteed 35 seats in the new 66-seat Senate: 19 in constituencies where the opposition failed to field candidates, 10 reserved for traditional chiefs who are generally loyal to the party and six to be chosen by Mugabe. — Sapa-DPA