2005-11-07,+MDC+Splits

MDC splits over about-turn on Zim senate elections
Sunday Independent, Johannesburg, November 6, 2005

By Peta Thornycroft

Harare - Zimbabwe's opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), has split.

While Morgan Tsvangirai, its leader, yesterday decisively won the battle to boycott senate elections, he lost most of his most senior colleagues in the process.

Tsvangirai called yesterday's meeting of the MDC's national council and it voted overwhelmingly against participation in the upcoming national elections to establish a senate, reversing a narrow decision on October 12 to field candidates for the poll.

Tsvangirai went against the party's constitution and ignored that decision. But with new-found energy, he embarked on a hectic campaign around the country to change opinion.

Tsvangirai's opponents in the MDC say youth members loyal to Tsvangirai and some in his "kitchen cabinet" - made up of party employees and unofficial advisers - are conducting a violent intimidation campaign.

They say the MDC leader has ignored decisions by elected officials since violence first began a year ago when Peter Guhu, the then director of security, was nearly killed at the party's Harare headquarters. The MDC has 26 out of 50 possible candidates registered at the nomination court for the elections on November 26.

The section of the MDC led by Gift Chamanikire, the deputy secretary-general, Welshman Ncube, the secretary-general and Tsvangirai's former friend and comrade, and Gibson Sibanda, the party's vice-president, are refusing to recognise the council's decision.

"This was a kangaroo meeting of the national council which has no respect for the party's constitution," Ncube said yesterday.

"The only useful thing to come out of the meeting in Harare is that a line has been drawn in the sand and the door has been closed to a negotiated settlement.

"I don't know what will happen to the MDC in the future, but whatever it is we will not be going forward together and we hope no candidate for the senate elections will withdraw."

Tsvangirai became the party's only spokesperson yesterday, although he refuses to speak to either the domestic media or the handful of foreign correspondents left in Zimbabwe. - Foreign Service

From: http://www.sundayindependent.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=2982533