An Observers Comment on the MDC Third Congress

The questions above were, respectively, posed by two delegates from Mashonaland Central and Chitungwiza provinces during the hotly contested elections at the third Congress of the main formation of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) held from 27 to 30 April at Bulawayos Babourfields Stadium. In this article, I seek to address the rationality of the MDC ordinary members, the way the congress was conducted, the campaign process, the voting process, the total absence of the police during the four day event, the overt presence of senior ZANU PF officials in Bulawayo and the possible implications of the Congress outcome to the party and the national democratic agenda. The article will also seek to draw parallels between the ways MDC conducted its internal electoral process and how ZANU PF administers its party electoral affairs. As different candidates were canvassing for support at Babourfields Stadium on Friday afternoon, I can across a 60-year old lady a delegate from Mashonaland Central province – who was lobbying delegates to vote for Tendai Biti, the Min-ister of Finance to retain his post of Secretary-General of the party. I asked the lady why she thought Biti was the best candidate worthy retain-ing the seat. Her answer was If Tendai Biti loses this election, what will the Common-wealth say? To her the Com-monwealth represented the outside world, the regional and international community and other forces and individuals outside of the MDC that she thinks hold Biti highly because of what she said is an excellent job Biti has done as Minister of Finance. On the question of Lovemore Moyo, a delegate from Chitungwiza said she has high respect for Lucia Matibenga who challenged Moyo for the post of Chairperson of the party but she said MDC supporters felt that Moyo fought well against ZANU PFs political machinations in Parliament. She argued that Moyo would do a great job for party by bringing more ZANU PF supporters and officials to the MDC after some of them voted from him during the election of the Speaker of Parliament. Her view was that Matibenga should have campaigned for a different post. She said Matibenga was a brilliant party cadre who campaigned against a person who is currently enjoying a lot of support and respect from members of the party. This writer sympathized with Matibenga and would have voted for her if he was a party delegate but the majority MDC supporters preferred Moyo and their collective wisdom carried the day. Biti and Moyo won those elections. The thing to note was that the MDC ordinary members were rational and clear about the leadership they wanted. Whereas the elite uses divisive campaign strat-egies, the ordinary congress delegates appeared not to be influenced by regionalism, tribalism or racism. Thokozani Khupe, at 3047, received the highest number of votes for any candidate, closely followed by Moyo.The campaigns leading to the vote was heavily contested with different teams moving around city hotels, schools and lodges where delegates were booked lobbying for their preferred candidates in a peaceful way. It was like a national election with candidates having flyers with campaign messages and what they would want to do for the party if they got elected. Nobody took anything for granted. I observed that the political violence that took place during provincial congresses did not feature at the national congress. The absence of acts of intimidation and violence during the four-day event was partly because of the MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirais strong message to take action against those found guilty of such acts. It was also because the na-tional council of the party resolved to deal decisively with acts of violence in the party, a decision which became a congress resolution. Tsvangirai spoke strongly against intra-party violence and warned those involved that after the Congress an independent investigation will be put in place to look at the problem and promised that heads will roll and that they would be no sacred cows. Even in the total absence of uniformed police for the entire congress period, law and order prevailed. It became the responsibility of every delegate to main-tain law and order in order to shame the conduct of the police who refused to provide security to the event. The youth Assembly Congress which preceded the main Congress indicated the orderly and democratic process that was to follow. Normally the youth youths are energetic, adventurous, impatient and rowdy. Nothing of this nature was exhibited when they held their elections. Like the main congress delegates, the youth assembly members had an all-night vigil waiting for the electoral outcome without any single incident of disorderly conduct or violence. The voting process had its problems like the omission of the name one candidate on the ballot paper but the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) which conducted the poll did a brilliant job. The elections were conducted in a free, fair and democratic manner. The presiding officer, professor Lovemore Madhuku announced that all contesting candidates, both losers and winners accepted the outcome of the election and did not register any complaints with him. The outcome of that election did not shock any-one who followed the political campaigns in Bulawayo. The outcome of the MDC congress reflected the prevailing consensus among the voting delegates on the nature and type of the leadership that they wanted. The ballot was secret so the outcome reflected the unfettered position of the delegates. The MDC, judging from the Congress outcome, is likely to get more united and focused on delivering a democratic Zimbabwe. Except for Tsvangirai and Roy Bennett who retained their posts unopposed, those who won the elections were robustly challenged by other party cadres and nobody took the process for granted. The victors also got to realize their shortcomings that they should address in order to bring cohesion in the party structures and membership. The concerns of the few who voted for losing candidates should be addressed. The party should also move fast to embrace those who were not successful and make them appreciate that a democratic process has such outcomes which should be respected and celebrated.The significance of the guest of honour Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga, the singing of Kenyan and Zimbabwean national anthems to a party political process brought an aura of the inevitability of democratic transition. Delegates including those who were not victors could be heard saying that they would never abandon their party after all their struggles. This to me signifies that the possibility of a political rapture in the MDC ranges from slim to zero.It was an interesting to see the presence of Nicholas Goche and Saviour Kasukuwere, two senior ZANU PF officials in Bulawayo during the congress days. I hope the two officials leant something about the conduct of internal democratic process. Unlike in ZANU PF, the election of party leaders was done through a secret ballot. The leader of the MDC did not seek to impose any candidate and all candidates that were nominated by the partys 12 provinces were subjected to an elec-tion where all delegates from the different provinces made their choices. In ZANU PF, the national leadership of the party is never elected, it is nominated. For instance if a candidate is nominated by six out of its ten provinces that person is deemed the winner without subjecting him to the scrutiny of the col-lective wisdom and will of all its delegates. Thats why suggesting a secret ballot system in ZANU PF is deemed a criminal offense worse than treason. Because of this internal electoral mal-practice ZANU PF party leaders lack national legitimacy apart from President Mugabe who succeeds himself at every party congress. These practices by ZANU PF poison and contaminate Zimbabwes electoral democracy. – Pedzisai Ruhanya, Crisis in Zim-babwe Coalition Programs Manager