News / National
Tsvangirai set to meet party structures in Harare
22 Jul 2017 at 02:56hrs | Views
MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai will today meet the party's Harare provincial structures as he continues to consolidate and marshal the party membership to back his candidature as coalition leader in the make-or-break 2018 general elections.
Tsvangirai's meeting with the structures comes as he gave an ultimatum to other opposition parties that they should join the coalition by the end of this month or his party would go it alone.
Party spokesman Obert Gutu confirmed the provincial meeting that will be addressed by Tsvangirai, which comes hardly a day after a similar one in Bulawayo yesterday.
"President Tsvangirai will tomorrow (today) meet with the Harare party structures. The provincial assemblies are held in terms of the MDC constitution where leadership in the province has to discuss issues and get acquainted of what's going on," Gutu said.
He added the party would discuss the forthcoming elections and what was expected of its membership. "Some of the topical issues will be the issue of biometric voter registration and the electoral reforms the party is seeking ahead of the 2018 general elections. Issues pertaining to coalition talks will be discussed in passing," Gutu added.
MDC-T youths last week went out into Harare streets demanding the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) to relax voter registration requirements in urban areas and increase registration centres.
The demonstrations came soon after Zec announced there would be 9 663 registration centres across the country and Harare and Bulawayo were allocated 700 and 400 centres respectively. Manicaland got 1 310, Mashonaland Central 870, Mashonaland East 1 135 and Mashonaland West 1 220.
Masvingo was allocated 1 265, Matabeleland North 850, Matabeleland South 640 and Midlands 1 390. The opposition complained that the Zec decision was a deliberate ploy to rig the polls in favour Zanu PF by easing registration for the rural folk while restricting those living in urban areas.
Tsvangirai's meeting with the structures comes as he gave an ultimatum to other opposition parties that they should join the coalition by the end of this month or his party would go it alone.
Party spokesman Obert Gutu confirmed the provincial meeting that will be addressed by Tsvangirai, which comes hardly a day after a similar one in Bulawayo yesterday.
"President Tsvangirai will tomorrow (today) meet with the Harare party structures. The provincial assemblies are held in terms of the MDC constitution where leadership in the province has to discuss issues and get acquainted of what's going on," Gutu said.
MDC-T youths last week went out into Harare streets demanding the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) to relax voter registration requirements in urban areas and increase registration centres.
The demonstrations came soon after Zec announced there would be 9 663 registration centres across the country and Harare and Bulawayo were allocated 700 and 400 centres respectively. Manicaland got 1 310, Mashonaland Central 870, Mashonaland East 1 135 and Mashonaland West 1 220.
Masvingo was allocated 1 265, Matabeleland North 850, Matabeleland South 640 and Midlands 1 390. The opposition complained that the Zec decision was a deliberate ploy to rig the polls in favour Zanu PF by easing registration for the rural folk while restricting those living in urban areas.
Source - NewsDay
