By- MDC President Douglas Mwonzora said he would not allow his lieutenants to relax at the party’s head office during the 2023 campaign period.

Mwonzora said everyone should be on the ground recruiting voters.

He said this on Sunday when the MDC endorsed him as the party’s presidential candidate for the 2023 general elections.

Mwonzora’s nomination was confirmed at the party’s 5th Ordinary Congress at the City Sports Centre in Harare on Sunday.

Speaking at the congress, Mwonzora said MDC remains strong despite what he called false propaganda, which was meant to destroy. He said:

As we begin 2023, we will begin a candidate selection programme, we are no longer like other parties where leaders just appoint candidates, ours will be chosen by the people through voting.

We are going to do an aggressive mobilisation for the party. All the top leaders you see are first going to their villages where they come from and mobilise from there.

I do not want to see a leader at the Harvest House, I want to see the leader on the ground, iwe neni tine basa.

I know, we know, they know that the MDC is a surprising party, and it will achieve. For over two years, we were subjected to a lot of false propaganda meant to split and destroy our party and leadership.

Today the MDC is standing on two feet, no amount of propaganda or hate language, or falsehoods can defeat an idea whose hour has come.

The congress also nominated Chief Ndlovu as the first vice president and Paurina Mpariwa as the second vice president.