By Paul Nyathi|MDC President and MDC Alliance coalition government Vice President hopeful professor Welshman Ncube has joined the brigade of presidium hopefuls not contesting the national elections.
In an interview held with the state run Sunday News on Friday, Professor Ncube revealed that he will not be contesting in any of the constituencies seconded to his MDC party in the MDC Alliance coalition.
As was said by the ruling ZANU PF current Vice Presidents Constantino Chiwenga and Kembo Mohadi who did not contest the party primary elections, Ncube said he will also only help co-ordinate and campaign for his party candidates and MDC-Alliance presidential candidate, Nelson Chamisa.
Mohadi and Chiwenga also revealed that they will not be contesting their party candidacy elections but will be campaigning for the party alongside with the ZANU PF presidential candidate Emmerson Mnangagwa hoping to be re-seconded into their current Vice President positions.
The move by Prof Ncube has equally raised questions on his relevance, post-elections as he is the only party principal in the alliance who is not gunning for a seat.
MDC-T president Mr Chamisa is the alliance’s presidential candidate while other principals are standing as either MPs or Senators in the seats that have been reserved for their parties.
The MDC Alliance is made up of seven political parties, MDC-T, which is led by Mr Chamisa, PDP (Mr Tendai Biti), MDC (Professor Welshman Ncube), Transform Zimbabwe (Mr Jacob Ngarivhume), Zanu Ndonga (Mr Denford Musiyarira), Multi-Racial Christian Democratic Party (Mr Mathias Guchutu) and Zimbabwe People First (Retired Brigadier-General Agrippa Mutambara).
“I am certainly not contesting. I think you have seen that the MDC has published its list of the candidates for the National Assembly and my name is not there so that tells you I am not running for the National Assembly seat nor am I running for Senate nor the Proportional Representation. So you will not find my name in any of them,” he said.
Prof Ncube however declined that he was angling to become a deputy to Chamisa as he was already a leader of a party — MDC.
“I am already one of the seven principals in the alliance so why should I be a deputy?” he said.
Sources within the party however revealed to ZimEye.com that Ncube is definitely set to become Chamisa’s Deputy as his party and Biti’s PDP are set for a historic unification immediately after the elections regardless of the outcome of the elections.