By Paul Nyathi|The Joice Mujuru led National People’s Party has explained why the party failed to reach a coalition agreement with the late MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
In a discussion with ZimEye.com, party spokesperson Jefferson Chitando narrated what he said were sticking points that led to the collapse of the hugely promising coalition.
Chitando said that the major factor that led to the failure of the coalition after the two parties had signed a historic Memorandum of Understanding was the identity of the proposed coalition.
“As the NPP we wanted a neutral name, symbol and even slogan for the coalition,” he said.
The MDC-T on the other hand stuck to wanting the coalition to be named the MDC Coalition and maintain the MDC-T colours and symbol.
“Neutrality builds confidence in all coalition partners.There are voters who dont want to be associated with a particular party name, logo or slogan but if neutrality is given preferences it accommodates every democratic forces,” said Chitando.
The NPP spokesperson himself a former MDC-T member indicated that the other sticking factor to the agreement was the issue of selection of candidates to represent the coalitoon in the elections.
“NPP was advocating for a democratic process. The most popular candidates to represent the coalition rather than the boardroom allocation of seats,” he said.
“It was never going to be feasible for a single political party to decide the constituencies to allocate to other political party partners, that would be very undemocratic,” he said.
“The political parties which are joining force to form a coalition all believe in democracy, therefore people have more power than leaders. Its important to give the grassroots the power to determine the candidate they want at ward and constituency level as it enhance the chance of winning. The coalition must not impose a candidate on the people as its against the value of the coalition partners and democracy,” he said.
Contrary to popular belief that the coalition collapsed because the NPP was adamant on having Mujuru as the coalition presidential candidate, Chitando said the party never tabled Mujuru as a condition.
“The NPP never at anytime brought the issue of Presidential candidate as a negotiation point as it believed the selection candidates covered as well the presidential candidate,” he said.
After the failure to agree on the identity of the coalition, Mujuru went on to lead the establishment of the People’s Rainbow Coalition with a splinter of the People’s Democratic Party and smaller parties DARE and ZUNDE.
Tsvangirai on the other hand tied fingers with his old partners Welshman Ncube led MDC and the Tendai Biti led PDP.
On the possibilities of the two coalitions still coming together before the make or break elections coming up in less than four months, Chitando said that the NPP and PRC are still prepared to engage with the new leader of the MDC Alliance coalition Nelson Chamisa.
“MDC Alliance and PR Coalition definitely need each other in order to win against ZanuPF,” he said.
He indicated that his party and coalition partners are prepared to bend backwards to accomodate the grand coalition with Chamisa.
“With time left it will be a disadvantage for the grand coalition to get a new neutral name therefore suggestions are put forward to adopt a double barrel name such as MDC /PRC Coalition,” said Chitando.
“The coalition’s can also adopt an election symbol or logo which has both the MDC’s Open palm and the PRC Freedom train, after all Chamisa is already talking of Bullet Train and PRC has a Freedom Train which makes the whole idea very simple and attractive to voters.”
Chamisa has also hinted in his rallies that he is still prepared to give the grand coalition discussions a chance to fulfil the late Tsvangirai’s wishes.