Legal experts said the party was delaying the appointments as it was scared of losing Senate seats in Parliament. Provincial governors are ex officio members of the Senate.
Zanu (PF) has dilly-dallied since February with the excuse that the new governors will not be sworn in until towards the end of August when the departing governors complete one year of their two-year contracts.
As four of the five MDC governors-designate are already Parliamentarians, three in the House of Assembly and one an elected Senator, they will relinquish their constituency seats in order to take up their ex officio seats, causing another four vacancies, three in the House of Assembly and one in the Senate, to be filled through by-elections.
Tsvangirai has appointed governors for Bulawayo – Seiso Moyo, Harare – James Makore, Manicaland – Julius Magaramombe, Masvingo – Lucia Matibenga, and Matabeleland North -Tose Sansole.
Mutambara has not yet named a governor-designate.
“The greatest impact will be on party numbers in the Senate,” said legal expert Val Ingham-Thorpe. “Numbers of elected Senators are fairly even at present: Zanu (PF) has 30 seats, MDC-T 24 and MDC-M six, giving the combined MDCs 30.
“Of nominated and ex officio Senators, Zanu (PF) has 16, which will change to 10, MDC-T four, which will change to nine and MDC-M two, which will change to three; thus the combined MDCs current six will go up to 12.
“Assuming that the MDCs will vote together, this means that in the Senate Zanu (PF) would only have a majority if the 18 chiefs vote with them, which has been traditional while Zanu (PF) was the exclusive governing party.”
Post published in: News