MDC-T Division cost Tsvangirai victory

Morgan Tsvangirai MDC-T leader

Nkulumani Mlambo MASVINGO – Though there are a number of factors that led the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) to lose dismally to Zanu PF in the harmonized elections on July 31, 2013, the way Morgan Tsvangirai and his party conducted their primaries was the major reason for their loss. While it is true that if anything goes wrong even within an organization there are certain people who are blamed, it is of paramount importance also to examine the real cause of the problem and recommend the solutions. The MDC-T leadership should first be prepared to accept criticism and be prepared to take advice from its fellow members, even those they regard as least important. MDC-T leadership should not give deaf ears to those that are on the ground who see things as they unfold especially the organizing department which was responsible for the primary elections. Though rigging is another key factor that led to MDC-T’s loss, people should also realize that the party held its primary election in a chaotic manner and there were cases of rigging and corruption within the party. MDC-T failed to unite factions after the primaries and they went to the harmonized elections divided, with many threatening ‘bhora musango, especially in Masvingo Urban and Manicaland constituencies. To buttress my argument below are few examples that i noticed which happened during the MDCT primaries: : In Gutu north a clearly unpopular candidate was declared the winner of the primary election ahead of a clearly popular woman candidate, if the national organising department had listened to the petition from the constituency the seat could have been won by MDC, but the department allowed votes that were counted in a bar to stand and the result was for all to see. The bar has since been named “Ballot Bar”. : With all due respect to the national chairman, he was not popular at all in his constituency but he was allowed to stand unopposed in the primary elections, he was beaten hands down by a ZANU candidate in the election. In the whole of Matebeleland South province if a proper analysis is to be done, ten seats could have gone to MDC if the leadership in the province was not greedy to allow for two equally popular candidates to in stand in each constituency giving ZANU PF victory in a silver plate. The issue of complacency also comes in, this province where popular candidates were encouraged not to contest senior party cadres in turn for other posts in the government to be formed by MDC , eg ambassadorial posts were promised with reckless abandon as if the party has already won the election. In short, this caused unpopular candidates to stand against popular candidates drawing support from the same pool thereby splitting the vote. : There is the case of Manicaland as a whole. Whilst the other constituencies were rigged there are very few. Take for example Nyanga south where the former MP was clearly rejected by the MDC Electoral College but, the party’s organising department went on to manipulate his candidature to be the party’s representative and the result was for all to see. Buhera North had three candidates from the MDC T, surely this was highly irrational, it shows lack of leadership at both provincial and national level because the chairman of the province also overrated himself and contested against ... to continue next week

31.8.13