Zimpapers Logo

Mr Mwonzora

Tendai Mugabe Senior Reporter—
MDC-T yesterday made a stunning admission that three Western governments had summoned its leadership to Europe and were funding the opposition party’s preparations for the next harmonised elections as the party announced it was dropping its poll boycott charade. Smarting from repeated drubbing by Zanu-PF at the polls, MDC-T this year announced it was boycotting all elections till its demand for unspecified electoral reforms was met, though the party ironically went on to fill its quota of proportional representation seats in Parliament.

MDC-T secretary-general Mr Douglas Mwonzora announced that an MDC-T delegation will visit England, Australia and Norway to receive funding and to brief the host governments on political developments here.

The delegation is scheduled to leave Harare on July 31 and completes the tour on August 4.

“The four-day visit has been made possible by the host countries which have invited us,” Mr Mwonzora said.

“We are also going to take that chance to meet with our party structures in these countries and intensify our 2018 political campaigns which have already started in earnest.”

Asked about the “No Reforms No Elections” mantra, Mr Mwonzora said they had changed their political strategy.

“The game will never be the same in 2018 as we have changed our approach to the election,” he was quoted as saying.

“I cannot tell you our new strategy at this moment because it is still premature to reveal it, but I want to assure you that the game has changed for the better.”

The MDC-T poll U-turn follows the censure the party received from US Congressman Gregory Simpkins, who was in Zimbabwe recently and slammed the party’s boycott stance.

“We have heard that political parties here argue that it is tough to compete in elections. But we are saying they have to find a way of being effective rather than just saying it is too tough to compete.

“How can you criticise a process that you are not part of, one cannot criticise a process that they have not even taken time to test. When you test the process, you can say we tried to register our candidates or observers were turned away; you can point to examples. If you are not a part of it at all then it is as good as there is no opposition,” Mr Simpkins said.

MDC-T spokesperson Mr Obert Gutu last night said his party was already preparing for the 2018 harmonised elections.

Mr Gutu added: “Our eyes are on 2018 and let us make sure that all hurdles that impede the conducting of free and fair elections are cleared.”

The MDC-T was launched on September 11 1999 after the three main British political parties, Labour, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats came together as the Westminster Foundation for Democracy to launch the MDC-T on a ZCTU platform in a bid to scupper the fast-track land reform programme.

And for a number of weeks at the turn of the millennium the Westminster Foundation website openly carried incriminating evidence of the MDC-T’s parentage which they only removed after Zanu-PF exposed the MDC-T as a puppet project.

The latest admission by Mwonzora is thus a throwback to the Westminster days, and explains why the MDC-T has been anti-Zimbabwe and pro-West in addition to having ex-Rhodies in its rank and file.