MDC bigwigs reluctant to contest

This deals a major blow to the MDC which has been making inroads in constituencies dominated by the MDC-T capitalising on disgruntlement by officials whose curriculum vitaes were turned down by Mr Morgan Tsvangirai’s party.

Insiders allege that among those unenthusiastic are party deputy president Mr Edwin Mushoriwa and secretary general Mrs Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga. Besides Prof Ncube who is the MDC presidential candidate, only the party’s national chairman Mr Goodwill Chimbaira has openly expressed interest in Chikomba Central where he has been vigorously campaigning of late.

The reluctance by senior MDC officials to join the race has reportedly forced the party to adopt a stance that all national council members must contest the harmonised elections.
Sources told the Herald this week that some of the senior party officials were scared of losing like what happened before and were targeting reserved seats under proportional representation.

“Some senior party officials have indicated that they are not willing to take part in the elections having been in parliament before. They said they want to give others a chance but the president of the party has made it clear that leaders do not lead from the back.

“They have no option but to contest. People cannot wait for donated seats. Everybody should take responsibility to drive the election especially national council members. As things stand, the president of the party has said everybody must take part,” a source said.

While efforts to get a comment from Mrs Misihairabwi-Mushonga were fruitless as her mobile phone went unanswered, Mr Mushoriwa would neither deny nor confirm his candidature in the coming elections.

“The party is in the process of looking into submission of curriculum vitae by aspiring candidates and we will make our announcement of candidates in due course. I am not going to pre-empty our candidates at the moment until the opportune time,” he said.

Mr Mushoriwa refused to say whether he submitted his curriculum vitae for consideration by the party’s electoral directorate. But MDC spokesperson Mr Kurauone Chihwayi, said the presidium of the party would contest the elections.