News / National
Zanu-PF invites Chamisa party for talks
28 Sep 2018 at 07:10hrs | Views
PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa's Zanu-PF party has offered an olive branch to the Nelson Chamisa-led MDC Alliance by inviting the opposition party to an interparty dialogue meant to resolve the economic and political challenges facing the country.
Previously, the interparty dialogue platforms were meant to work on areas relating to elections between the political parties and selected leaders from all the parties that have representation in Parliament.
Zanu-PF secretary for legal affairs, Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana, said the ruling party stood ready to engage Chamisa's party in dialogue through such a platform, but on condition that he accepts the outcome of the July 30 harmonised elections.
Chamisa has rejected President Emmerson Mnangagwa's victory, but said he is open to dialogue to solve the legitimacy issue surrounding the elections.
"We are trying to start meetings once Chamisa clears the confusion in his head," Mangwana said.
"The confusion relates to accepting parliamentary results and not accepting Presidential results when elections were happening at the same time. His Members of Parliament have been sworn in as MPs and taken up their seats in Parliament and he continues to say he doesn't recognise the presidential elections," Mangwana said.
He said the Constitutional Court had already made a decision.
"Once he (Chamisa) accepts that the decision of the Constitutional Court is final, then we will resume the interparty dialogue," he said.
"We want to look at issues of mutual concern among political parties and things that we can work together and see how we can move our country forward, from the economic front and legislative front, if there are any laws we feel we must improve, then we negotiate that."
Mangwana said Zanu-PF could not engage Chamisa in the interparty dialogue when he does not recognise the outcome of the elections.
"We are saying let's go past that and recognise the outcome of the elections and then, as the sons and daughters of Zimbabwe, we sit down and look at the challenges and see how we can resolve them together," he said.
However, MDC secretary-general Douglas Mwonzora said they stood ready to dialogue, but would not accept being given conditions by Zanu-PF.
"We are ready for dialogue, but it must not have conditions. So we totally disagree with Zanu-PF when it wants to set conditions for the dialogue. It must be dialogue without conditions," he said.
Mwonzora said the interparty dialogue meetings were fruitful in bringing about the biometric voter registration issue and crafting the code of conduct for the political parties that was used in the elections.
Previously, the interparty dialogue platforms were meant to work on areas relating to elections between the political parties and selected leaders from all the parties that have representation in Parliament.
Zanu-PF secretary for legal affairs, Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana, said the ruling party stood ready to engage Chamisa's party in dialogue through such a platform, but on condition that he accepts the outcome of the July 30 harmonised elections.
Chamisa has rejected President Emmerson Mnangagwa's victory, but said he is open to dialogue to solve the legitimacy issue surrounding the elections.
"We are trying to start meetings once Chamisa clears the confusion in his head," Mangwana said.
"The confusion relates to accepting parliamentary results and not accepting Presidential results when elections were happening at the same time. His Members of Parliament have been sworn in as MPs and taken up their seats in Parliament and he continues to say he doesn't recognise the presidential elections," Mangwana said.
He said the Constitutional Court had already made a decision.
"We want to look at issues of mutual concern among political parties and things that we can work together and see how we can move our country forward, from the economic front and legislative front, if there are any laws we feel we must improve, then we negotiate that."
Mangwana said Zanu-PF could not engage Chamisa in the interparty dialogue when he does not recognise the outcome of the elections.
"We are saying let's go past that and recognise the outcome of the elections and then, as the sons and daughters of Zimbabwe, we sit down and look at the challenges and see how we can resolve them together," he said.
However, MDC secretary-general Douglas Mwonzora said they stood ready to dialogue, but would not accept being given conditions by Zanu-PF.
"We are ready for dialogue, but it must not have conditions. So we totally disagree with Zanu-PF when it wants to set conditions for the dialogue. It must be dialogue without conditions," he said.
Mwonzora said the interparty dialogue meetings were fruitful in bringing about the biometric voter registration issue and crafting the code of conduct for the political parties that was used in the elections.
Source - newsday
