Chamisa's provincial congress nominations marred by manipulation

MDC provincial congresses have allegedly been marred by manipulation of structures, violence, intimidation of Chamisa opponents, with voting going into midnight.

The process has left some party bigwigs frustrated as some are being thrown by the wayside.

"The provincial elections were marked by what was clearly a choreographed pattern of intimidation, vote rigging and open violence to supporters of Chamisa's rivals," one official said.

"The pattern began with the delayed commencement of the voting process and ended with the announcement of Chamisa and his slate as the winners in the dead of the night, after midnight in all three cases."

However, the party's spokesperson Jacob Mafume claimed the process had gone on very well.

"Our provincial congresses are meeting the standard of democracy and complying with the MDC constitution," he said.

"The history of congress is that, it can only end when business on the agenda is all dealt with. In any case, we have not received any formal complaint from anyone.

"Our constitution provides for a dispute resolution mechanism and if one has a challenge around the elections, it will be dealt with before the main congress.

"We are so quite happy with the way we have handled our process so far."

Chamisa has in the past accused Zanu-PF of trying to influence the outcome of the MDC congress.