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HARARE – The MDC (anti-Senate) has announced that enthusiasm and confidence continues to swell among the party’s supporters as they brace for the rebirth of the party and the renewal of their leadership at the forthcoming congress.

The party’s President, Morgan Tsvangirai, this week continued his consultative meetings with the party’s structures around the country.

“Elsewhere in Zimbabwe, our executives at all levels are in constant consultation on the state of the party and the state of the struggle for democracy,” said spokesperson Nelson Chamisa, who, together with national Chairman Isaac Matongo and Makokoba MP Thoko Khupe, last week visited MDC structures in the UK and USA.

Chamisa said people around the country were positive that the congress would mark a new phase of democratic resistance.

“There is no other way to national salvation except to confront this regime and take charge of our destiny,” he said. “Zimbabweans have the right to engage in peaceful resistance against those bent on perpetuating their misery. We shall not be intimidated by state security agents or government propaganda.”

He said the country was facing unprecedented crises on several fronts, but instead of focusing on these issues, the government machinery had chosen to focus on Tsvangirai’s trip to Zambia and his subsequent deportation.

Chamisa dismissed the Zambian incident as “part of a CIO plot to harass the MDC. They created a mythical story of intrigue to justify its desperate attempt to stop an ordinary party meeting.

“The truth of the matter is we held a normal meeting. By the time the CIO arm-twisted their Zambian counterparts, the meeting was over. Some members of the Zambian secret service confirmed to us that they were acting on orders from their counterparts in across the border, who had told them the MDC delegation had weapons of war.

“The Zambians were under pressure to act on us. They were misled. If a simple trip by the MDC leader and eight officials can cause such panic among the CIO and their Zambian counterparts, then the party is as alive as ever,” he said.