MDC members defy Tsvangirai
24/10/2005 21:42  - (SA)  

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Harare - Divisions in Zimbabwe's main opposition party strengthened on Monday when at least 22 members registered as candidates for upcoming senate elections in defiance of a call by the party's leader to boycott the vote.

State radio confirmed that Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) candidates had defied leader Morgan Tsvangirai by filing papers at nomination courts in at least five of the country's 10 provinces.

In the capital Harare, three opposition candidates filed their papers just minutes before the court closed, the radio said.

This is the biggest snub so far for opposition leader Tsvangirai, who had ordered his party's supporters not to put forward candidates to contest elections for a new senate on November 26.

The radio report confirmed that 15 MDC candidates would stand in each of the party's strongholds of Bulawayo, Matabeleland North and Matabeleland South provinces.

Another four will stand in Mashonaland West province, a hotbed of support for President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zimbabwe Zanu-PF.

In the eastern province of Manicaland four Zanu-PF candidates were elected unopposed after the MDC obeyed their leader's order not to register candidates.

"Every constituency (in Matabeleland North) has fielded an MDC candidate and this is in total defiance of the party's president," state radio said in a live update from the nomination court in Bulawayo, 439km south-west of the capital.

"The candidates for Bulawayo province have been issued with their appointment forms," it added.

One of the candidates confirmed to stand for the MDC in Matabeleland North is Samuel Nkomo, the former chief executive of the banned Daily News newspaper.

There are 50 senatorial seats up for grabs.

The MDC is deeply divided on the issue of participation. Tsvangirai says the party will not contest because the current electoral laws are skewed in favour of the ruling Zanu-PF.

He reiterated that position this weekend.

But other senior party officials say that if the MDC does not take part in the elections, it will cede too much political ground to President Robert Mugabe's party.

Last week Tsvangirai wrote to the country's electoral commission, instructing them not to accept MDC candidates. - Sapa-dpa

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