Last week we revealed that former Finance minister Simba Makoni, retired army general Solomon Mujuru and both MDC’s were involved in talks aimed a forging a powerful alliance to contest the elections. The politicians are considering a single candidate, backed by the others, to contest Mugabe in order to avoid splitting the vote.
Leaders of the two MDC factions, Arthur Mutambara and Morgan Tsvangirai, deliberated on the single candidate option earlier in the year, but negotiations collapsed. However this paper has it on good authority that both are in discussions with Mujuru and Makoni and expected to adopt the single-candidate option expected to be announced in January next year.
“The deliberations are considering the single candidate option for the presidential election whilst the various parties contest the parliamentary elections,” a source said. “The other areas of a lot of interest and which have generated debate have been forming and constituting a new government composed of all the involved parties but with an acknowledgement that this particular issue must come after the vital aspect of coming up with a manner that paves way for a resounding election victory.”
Tsvangirai, regarded as the most popular opposition leader, is touted to be selected by the coalition to contest Mugabe for the country’s presidency, with the backing of Makoni and Mutambara who would be senior members of the new government in the event of victory. The Zimbabwean this week established that the coalition talks are at an advanced stage and hoped to reach a conclusion next month in order to launch the election campaign in January. – Itai Dzamara
Post published in: News