Elections to a new Senate in Zimbabwe this weekend appear to have sounded the death knell for a party that posed the stiffest challenge to President Robert Mugabe’s uninterrupted rule since the country’s independence in 1980.
The elections due on Saturday have exposed deep divisions in the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party and chances of two feuding factions reconciling have grown slimmer in the run-up to Saturday’s polls.
The six-year-old party — considered the biggest threat to Mugabe’s rule — has been rocked by bickering after disagreements on contesting the controversial Senate elections.
The party’s woes started on October 12 when MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai overrode a decision of the party’s supreme decision-making body, the national council, to take part in the controversial polls.
But a section of the party led by vice-president Gibson Sibanda and powerful secretary general Welshman Ncube, stuck by the national council’s decision and nominated about 26 candidates, later sacked by Tsvangirai.
Tsvangirai, along with the MDC’s national chairperson Isaac Matongo, is leading a faction of the party that is vehemently opposed to the Senate elections arguing it is an ill-timed and expensive exercise which comes against the backdrop of a food and economic crisis wracking the country.
Sibanda, Ncube, deputy secretary general Gift Chimanikire and treasurer Fletcher Dulini-Ncube are leading the pro-Senate faction.
Commentators say the elections have exposed simmering tensions in the party over leadership.
”The issue of the Senate has exacerbated the existing tensions in the party. Those tensions were building up for a year or so and I think they are to do with leadership style,” said professor Lloyd Sachikonye of the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Zimbabwe.
”The Senate elections have exposed inherent weaknesses within the MDC. It will take more time for it to be the governing party,” said Lovemore Madhuku, a pro-democracy activist.
Observers say the divisions in the MDC over the polls might raise fears that opposition politics could degenerate into tribal politics.
”Many people have read into the ethnic dimension because most seats have been contested in the Matabeleland region, but I am not sure if that is the reason behind the underlying tensions,” said Sachikonye.
Tsvangirai, who has been at the helm of the party, belongs to the majority Shona ethnic group while Sibanda, Ncube and Dulini-Ncube belong to the minority Ndebele race.
Although Tsvangirai extended an olive branch to the party’s ”dissidents” at a recent rally, the public bad-mouthing the two camps have adopted could spell ultimate doom for the party.
Some party lawmakers have accused Tsvangirai of dictatorial tendencies and labelled him a lunatic with an unsatiable appetite for money.
But analysts believe chances of the two resolving their differences and reconciling still exist, but will be determined by the outcome of the Senate elections.
”The deciding factor now are the Senate elections,” said University of Zimbabwe political science lecturer Joseph Kurebwa.
”They will all sober up after the elections and will have time to reflect,” said Sachikonye.
Kurebwa said if the 26 opposition candidates win significantly, they might be able to have the leverage on which to approach the other camp.
But fears abound that an apparent lack of enthusiasm displayed by voters so far might result in voter apathy, handing over a crushing victory to Mugabe’s ruling party.
Mugabe and his two vice-presidents have in recent days been on a campaign trail, capitalising on the divisions in the MDC to woo support.
”It will deal a serious blow to democracy in Zimbabwe if the main opposition party is to break up,” said Kurebwa. – AFP
