By Paul Nyathi | Following the controversial and conflicting statement by the MDC-T Secretary General, Douglas Mwonzora, calling on party members to start sending in applications to be considered as parliamentary election candidates, MDC Alliance coalition partner the MDC led by Professor Welshman Ncube has also opened for its members to start sending in applications too.
Impeccable sources within the smaller MDC faction toldZimEye.com that due to the lack of coordinated statements by the bigger MDC Alliance partner, MDC-T, the party has also resolved “to stay prepared for any eventuality” by setting up their own candidates in all the 210 constituencies country wide.
Mwonzora’s statement sent shivers down the Alliance partners who have always believed that the parliamentary seats will be allocated to the parties on an agreed proportion.
Mwonzora indicated to the media that he was not aware of any arrangement to share parliamentary seats with the coalition partners hence his calling for applications from members across the country.
His statement was however heavily condemned by the MDC-T President Morgan Tsvangirai who accused Mwonzora of giving misdirected information.
Mwonzora however insisted on his stance saying that he is following the party constitution and carrying out his duty as Secretary General.
“I am following the constitution of the party. If anyone is affected by the coalition agreement, which I am not privy to, then they will relinquish their seat,” said Mwonzora to the media.
Speaking to ZimEye.com on Boxing Day, the MDC Secretary General Miriam Mushayi dismissed the information that her party was inviting applications from all the 210 constituencies.
Mushayi said that her party was only taking applications from 32 constituencies which were allocated to her party by the Alliance agreement.
“It is true that we sent out a notice as the MDC led by Prof Ncube asking our party members to apply to be Members of Parliament but only in constituencies that have been allocated to us as a party under the MDC Alliance Agreement,” she sid.
“We did not and will never ask for applications for all the 210 contested constituencies since these are spread across the seven Alliance partners under the Alliance agreement.”
“By asking for the applications the MDC as a party is living to the spirit and letter of the MDC Alliance agreement as we prepare for the forthcoming harmonised elections by doing our candidate selection so that we have our foot soldiers in place who will run with the campaign so we totally remove the ZANU PF system of government through our Alliance Presidential candidate Dr Morgan Richard Tsvangirai,” said Mushayi.