Zim opposition leadership row deteriorates

HARARE – Relations between quarrelling senior officials of Zimbabwe’s main opposition hit their lowest point on Friday with the news that supporters of leader Morgan Tsvangirai have broken off contact with their party rivals.

Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) split over disagreements on participation in last week’s Senate elections, which saw President Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF win. But only 19 per cent of the electorate participated in the poll.Nelson Chamisa, speaking for Tsvangirai supporters, said they had lost confidence in six senior MDC officials, including Secretary-General Welshman Ncube and Vice-President Gibson Sibanda.”We have no legal force to expel or suspend them from the party or their positions, but we have simply dissociated ourselves from them because we have lost confidence in them,” Chamisa told Reuters.Tsvangirai had argued for a boycott of the elections to protest a process he believes was rigged to enhance the power of Mugabe and his party.Other senior leaders, particularly Ncube, had argued the party should participate and fielded candidates in some areas of the country.A meeting of the party’s national council on Thursday accused the six members of not coming to work and neglecting their duties over the last two months, he said.Paul Themba-Nyathi, a spokesman for the Ncube faction said Thursday’s meeting was constituted illegally and that he and his supporters have kept their party positions.Last Sunday Tsvangirai scoffed at attempts by his senior lieutenants to suspend him from the MDC on charges of violating its constitution by decreeing a poll boycott call, saying only the party’s congress due next year was vested with such powers.- Nampa-ReutersBut only 19 per cent of the electorate participated in the poll.Nelson Chamisa, speaking for Tsvangirai supporters, said they had lost confidence in six senior MDC officials, including Secretary-General Welshman Ncube and Vice-President Gibson Sibanda.”We have no legal force to expel or suspend them from the party or their positions, but we have simply dissociated ourselves from them because we have lost confidence in them,” Chamisa told Reuters.Tsvangirai had argued for a boycott of the elections to protest a process he believes was rigged to enhance the power of Mugabe and his party.Other senior leaders, particularly Ncube, had argued the party should participate and fielded candidates in some areas of the country.A meeting of the party’s national council on Thursday accused the six members of not coming to work and neglecting their duties over the last two months, he said.Paul Themba-Nyathi, a spokesman for the Ncube faction said Thursday’s meeting was constituted illegally and that he and his supporters have kept their party positions.Last Sunday Tsvangirai scoffed at attempts by his senior lieutenants to suspend him from the MDC on charges of violating its constitution by decreeing a poll boycott call, saying only the party’s congress due next year was vested with such powers.- Nampa-Reuters