Movement for Democratic Change secretary-general, Douglas Mwonzora, who dropped out of the race to contest party leader Nelson Chamisa for presidency but is now seeking re-election as secretary-general at the party congress scheduled for this weekend, says he does not understand why people under-estimate him all the time.

“I do not see why people continue underestimating me every time. In 2014 I had one nomination and I went on to win by more than 1 000 votes, in 2011 I had one nomination and went on to win by more than 1 000 votes,” he told the Standard.

Mwonzora said he is going to retain his post if the elections are free and fair.

“Given a free and fair election, I will definitely win, but quite a number of things have to be done. An independent electoral commission has to put its foot down to avoid cheating and it must also make sure that those things that must be availed to candidates must be availed on time,” he said.

“The voters roll must be availed to all the candidates as agreed. It was supposed to be availed on April 29, but we are yet to receive it.

“There must be watertight security and also we must avoid as much as possible the running of this election by staff members of the MDC. So it depends on the way the commission will conduct this election.”

Mwonzora refused to say if the congress is going ahead or not following the High Court ruling that the party must hold an extra-ordinary congress instead and that Chamisa’s leadership is unconstitutional.

“I have not applied my mind to it. I think the lawyers who are handling the matter are better placed to comment on whether or not it is enforceable,” he said.

Mwonzora, who like Chamisa, Tendai Biti, Welshman Ncube, Jacob Mafume, just to name a few , is a lawyer, said it was wrong for anyone to demonise judges.

“As an officer of the court myself, I am not very comfortable with spreading hate language against judges in the media or social media. I think judges still need to be respected,” he said.

“Respecting the judiciary does not necessarily mean agreeing with their judgements, but I think it is wrong for anyone to demonise judges. However, it is permissible to disagree with judgements wherever people feel that the judgement is not fair.”