Morgan Tsvangirai
As expected, some opportunistic political parties with no grassroots support were up in arms following the Tsvangirai led MDC’s resolution to field a candidate with a real chance of winning against Mugabe.
If the removal of ZANU PF from power is what Zimbabwe needs, then anyone who argues against such a position is either just power hungry, jealousy, part of the ZANU PF machinery or all of the three combined. How can you want to remove ZANU PF and then field a candidate without the capacity to win against Mugabe, who has already been endorsed as the ZANU PF candidate for the 2018 elections? Why then are phrases such as tried and tested developed for is someone dismisses such a position?
I have written my own opinion on the subject and said that the political party with the biggest following must provide the candidate for the Presidential elections against Mugabe, and I am still of the same opinion. Other parties who wish to present their own candidates must simply prove their political capital in the negotiations.
The problem with some of these parties is that they overvalue their potential, just as Professors Mutambara and Ncube did in 2008 when, as confirmed by Tendai Biti, they allowed the talks to field a common candidate over 2 seats when they thought the MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai was wrongly static their support in Bulawayo. Political parties opposing Tsvangirai in his party’s position should study the 2008 effort to prove for themselves that the MDC-T are more realistic in their approach.
The Tsvangirai led MDC must proceed to identify appropriate players to work with to achieve the goal to end ZANU PF rule for the good of the nation.
I appeal to all reasonable political parties opposed to Mugabe not to repeat the Professor Mutambara, Dr. Dabengwa and Dr. Simba Makoni experiment of 2008 which was influenced to a large extent by the amateurish approach to politics and hate for Tsvangirai as expressed by Dr. Dabengwa who said he could not support a trade unionists, even when the late Father Zimbabwe Dr. Joshua Nkomo was a trade unionist.
I will also appeal to Zimbabweans who wish to see Zimbabwe extricated from the jaws of dictator Mugabe to rally behind a candidate with potential to beat Mugabe to bring about a new beginning for Zimbabwe.
Tsvangirai got 73% of the March 2008 vote, by President Mugabe’s own admission, but after six weeks of recounting 5 million votes he ended up with 47%! The problem is not with the selection of opposition candidates but with Zanu PF rigging the vote! Address the real problem and stop wasting time and energy on trivial issues!
I have also failed to see why the parties feel offended by the MDC demands. They simply stated that those candidates with a real chance of winning should be fielded, whether these will come from whatever party they belong to. Most parties have members that are not new to politics and elections having broken away from other parties. Biti himself has been trried and tested, and some of his membership in PDP. Why the loud wail?