MDC split over senate polls
13/10/2005 08:49  - (SA)  

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Zimbabwe Special Report  Latest Zimbabwe Stories

Harare - Zimbabwe's main opposition party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was split on Wednesday after its leader Morgan Tsvangirai overruled senior members who voted to participate in upcoming senate elections.

Earlier on Wednesday, Tsvangirai said the party would boycott the November 26 senate elections.

Tsvangirai admitted there had been a stalemate over the issue and he had made the final decision to boycott the polls.

"I'm the leader of the party. I'm giving direction when you have a stalemate," he said.

Tsvangirai said Zimbabwe's electoral playing field "breeds illegitimate outcomes and provides for predetermined results".

A contentious issue

In a statement issued on Wednesday, party spokesperson Paul Themba Nyathi claimed that 33 members of the party's decision-making national council had voted in favour of participating in the poll, while 31 favoured a boycott.

"The national council of the MDC resolved by a majority that the party would contest the senatorial election scheduled for 26 November 2005," Nyathi said.

Over the past five years, the MDC has lost three elections to President Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF). The MDC claims those elections were stolen.

In a follow-up telephone interview on Wednesday, Nyathi denied the split within the MDC but said there was a "strong difference of opinion".

"It is a contentious issue. I'm not sure if that translates into a split - it translates into a strong difference of opinion," he said.

Nyathi said the party's main focus was still to oppose Mugabe's regime. "Anything else is irrelevant," he said. - Sapa-dpa

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