By Claver Nyuki
As the MDC elective congress draws near, there seems to be a sense of assurance among the Nelson Chamisa camp with all but one province still to nominate him to stand uncontested as the party’s President. This will effectively put to bed the current Vice President Elias Mudzuri and Secretary General, Douglas Mwonzora’s ambitions to succeed the late Morgan Tsvangirai as the party’s president.
Chamisa’s cheerleaders, most notable, Patson Dzamara have gone a step further to construe the nominations as popularity contest with President Mnangagwa and have already concluded that Chamisa has won.
History will remind us that once upon a time, Chamisa won 11 nominations against Mwonzora’s one but ended up with egg on the face after losing the Secretary General post in 2014 during congress. Chamisa’s cronies seem to be suffering from selected amnesia or Alzheimer (a form of dementia) as they do not take this in consideration but chose to give themselves false assurance.
In the immediate future, Chamisa will most probably stand uncontested and will be mandated to lead the opposition MDC for the next five years but not all will be happy with the development. Reports of vote rigging in the nomination process is all over social media with Mashonaland East province recording 7 districts that were denied a chance to nominate their candidates of choice.
In Manicaland, another 7 districts are reported to have been disfranchised from the flawed nomination process, leading Mwonzora to pull out of Presidential race as he cited an uneven playing field.
Other factors that arose during the nomination process are claims that members who were not part of the structures were allowed to vote while those who were supposed to vote were denied their right. This would obviously explain why Chamisa decided to personally oversee the nomination processes throughout the provinces.
The decision to oversee the process was seen by some as an intimidation move. How would members vote freely while being watched by Chamisa himself?
What history is also kind enough to tell us is that before the elective congress was confirmed, Chamisa sent the party’s organising secretary, Amos Chibaya on a nationwide tour, ordering the party structures to nominate Chamisa, thereby exposing that plans to go to congress unopposed were drafted long back.
Reports revealed that those suspected to be in support of Mwonzora or Mudzuri leadership were removed and replaced by Chamisa’s followers in order to safeguard the nomination.
Now that the nominations are almost done and dusted, other members from within the MDC have claimed that the nomination process was supposed to be overseen by a neutral person but alas, Chibaya, Chamisa’s crony was the architect of the vote rigging under the disguise that the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) was running the whole process.
The nomination process, on face value may give the wrong impression that Chamisa enjoys the support of the whole MDC family but in essence, the nomination process brought to the fore more enemies than friends for Chamisa. Some members who had the courage to speak, claim that this was just a stolen nomination and likened it to the way Chamisa elbowed Thokozani Khupe from her rightful position soon after the late Tsvangirai passed.
The nomination of Chamisa unopposed is just a farce and stupid on the part of his supporters to use it as a barometer that he is more popular that President Mnangagwa. The reality is that Chamisa may lose more than he won as his support base is now divided ahead of the elective congress.
