By Paul Nyathi|Coalition of Democrats, (CODE) leader Elton Mangoma says that their coalition is the most stable and best coalition available ahead of this year’s elections.
Speaking to ZimEye.com in an interview on Tuesday, Mangoma said that CODE has the best possible chances of winning the national elections set for July or August this year because of its stability compared to other coalitions.
“We are by far the most stable and best administered coalition for this election and very confident that we will win the election,” said Mangoma.
The coalition is made up of Mangoma’s Renewal Democrats of Zimbabwe with five other so called minor opposition parties.
The other parties are, Dumiso Dabengwa led ZAPU which also incorporates in it Barbara Nyagomo’s Progressive Democrats of Zimbabwe.
Little known African Democratic Party led by Marcelina Chikasha and a faction of the Zimbabwe First Party led by Derreck Lupemba.
Mangoma said that the coalition will be officially launched at a ceremony to be held at the Africa Unity Square in Harare this Saturday.
“We will definitely be launching the coalition this Saturday and all preparations are well in place for the day,” said Mangoma.
Contrary to his assertions on the stability of the party, CODE lost two of its founding and key members the Welshman Ncube led MDC and the Tendai Biti led PDP last year.
The two parties joined the then MDC-T leader late Morgan Tsvangirai to establish the MDC Alliance coalition which at the moment has by far the largest visible following.
Giving further doubts on the stability claims by Mangoma, the Coalition of Democrats recently lost two more members the Dr Maxwell Zeb Shumba led faction of ZimFirst and surprising returnees PDZ of Barbara Nyagomo.
The parties all accused the coalition of lacking the political stamina to be able to wrestle power from the ruling ZANU PF.
The departing leaders also accused Mangoma of not being transparent in the running of the party consequently turning into a dictator.
“As the ZimFirst presidential candidate, I believe CODE is worthless and Mangoma is incompetent,” said Dr Shumba when he quite the coalition early this year.
“For this country to move forward we do not need such kind of leadership,” he said.
Nyagomo of the Progressive Democrats of Zimbabwe (PDZ) wrote to CODE saying;
“PDZ is pulling out of CODE because there is lack of transparency and accountability and also that a principal or a couple of principals take unilateral decisions in CODE.”
Besides being questioned on the issues raised by exiting partners, Mangoma insisted, without giving reasons, that the coalition is far much better organised than the Nelson Chamisa led MDC Alliance and the Joice Mujuru led People’s Rainbow Coalition.