2005-10-26,+Harare+has+no+Senate+Candidates

25 October 2005

= HARARE DOES NOT HAVE CANDIDATES FOR THE SENATE =

The Harare Province of the Movement for Democratic Change wishes to express its revulsion at attempts by some misguided elements in the party to impose individuals in the city as candidates of the MDC in the forthcoming elections of the Senate.

For the record, Harare does not support the Zanu PF and CIO Senate project.

Harare is very clear about this negative development in our nation’s political history.

Harare has no candidates for the Senate. There was neither a primary election nor a meeting at which anyone was chosen by consensus or nominated by anyone in the structures for the candidature of the Senate.

We hear that some political adventurers were bussed in from Mashonaland East to register in Harare’s constituencies. Our structures have nothing to do with them.

Our structures jealously guard their space from such invaders and have vowed to make it impossible for them to campaign against the people’s struggle for democracy in the city.

As the leadership of the province, we shall refrain from counseling patience among the MDC supporters should their peace be disturbed by anyone under the guise of a campaign for a Senatorial seat using the MDC as a springboard.

What is particularly worrying is the information we received indicating that some of these candidates were brought into the city by the CIO and driven to the nomination court a few minutes before 4pm yesterday.

This shows that there is a broad CIO plot to tarnish the image of Harare. We shall resist that.

We have been assured by our colleagues in Chitungwiza, Mashonaland West, Mashonaland Central, Mashonaland East, Manicaland, Masvingo, both Midlands South and North and Matabeleland North that no primary elections were conducted in those areas and that party structures have resolved to have nothing to do with the campaign for the Senate.

This means Harare and the real MDC are united. We are solidly behind our President Morgan Tsvangirai in the crusade for a new, people-driven, publicly endorsed Constitution for a new Zimbabwe.

We pledge to join the rest of the country in the fight for a new Constitution and for meaningful democratic change.

Our campaign for democratic resistance is gathering momentum and we shall show leadership as the capital city in this struggle.

We swear to protect the party from elements keen to destabilize it.

I thank you

Last Maengahama

Secretary, Harare Province, MDC.