Officials dump MDC-T

Ward 9 councillor Amos Razor, Chikomba West aspiring candidate Mr Arnold Chidodo and another district official, Mr Claude Moyo, wrote to the party district executive saying they were leaving the party.

In their separate letters, the officials said they were among several people who were harassed and victimised for expressing an intention to stand in Chikomba West constituency.
Clr Razor said that he was subjected to disciplinary proceedings after he expressed interest to stand in Chikomba West while others had suffered a similar experience.

The party’s Mashonaland East provincial chairperson, Mr Piniel Denga, however, professed ignorance about their departure, saying as far as he was concerned they were still members.

“We were actually going through CVs yesterday for people who wanted to contest and I even saw their names. Their CVs were under consideration. If they have said they want to leave the party, it is their democratic right to choose a political direction they want, but they should not seek to discredit the party,” said Mr Denga, who is also Mbare MP.

Mr Denga accused Mr Razor of sabotaging Copac’s “Yes” campaign by withdrawing a letter the councillor had written to council seeking permission to use a hall because of party differences.

“We had to re-negotiate with council otherwise it was going to be an embarrassment because political leadership from all the three parties were to address the meeting,” he said.
Mr Denga said the party’s provincial executive had instituted investigations into allegations that were raised by their districts.
In the letter, Clr Razor accused party leadership of imposing candidates.

“I did not think a party calling itself a party of excellence would use democracy as its crowd puller and later use dictatorship to run its affairs. The party is now full of disgruntled supporters from either the congress or the muscle-flexing primary election ghost,” said Mr Razor.

In an interview, Mr Chidodo, who was the chief election agent for Mr Morgan Tsvangirai for Chikomba West in the 2008 polls, said he had not received any joy since he expressed his desire to contest in the constituency. He said his application to contest had been rejected by the party’s provincial executive.