MDC suspends 6 over elections

2005-12-02 12:14

Harare - Six senior Zimbabwean opposition members have been suspended from the party executive for refusing to heed a call from leader Morgan Tsvangirai to boycott recent senate elections, says a party spokesperson on Friday.

A newly appointed spokesperson Nelson Chamisa said the national council of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) made the decision on Thursday, sacking secretary-general Welshman Ncube and vice-president Gibson Sibanda among others.

Chamisa said: "These people haven't been performing their official duties in the past two months as mandated by the party constitution and brought the name of the party into disrepute.

"The national council met and expressed no confidence in them. They are effectively suspended until they come back and start doing the work they were elected to do."

New senate

The other four who were expelled from the leadership were deputy secretary-general Gift Chimanikire, treasurer Fletcher Dulini-Ncube, information and publicity secretary Paul Themba Nyathi and secretary for policy and research Trudy Stevenson.

The six backed party members who rejected a call by Tsvangirai to boycott elections to a new senate that were held on November 26.

Tsvangirai maintained that the elections were a waste of money at a time after the country was facing a severe food shortage.

President Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) won 43 of the 50 contested seats, while the MDC picked up seven seats in the elections that were marred by poor turnout.

National council meeting

But, the split had dealt a severe blow to the MDC, which had in recent years been widely regarded as the most credible challenge to Mugabe's 25 years uninterrupted rule.

The national council meeting came a week after a party committee had suspended Tsvangirai from his position as president of the MDC that was founded six years ago.

But, Tsvangirai scoffed at the suspension and continued to perform his official duties and visiting the party offices.

Infighting in the MDC came to a boil after Tsvangirai overruled a decision of the national council and declared that the opposition would not participate in the polls.

- AFP