President of a party must not be president of the country says Dabengwa

Dumiso Dabengwa the interim Zapu president says Zapu's presidential candidature is vacant and his current position does not automatically qualify him to represent the party in the next general elections.

Addressing a Zapu rally in Ntabazinduna over the weekend, Dabengwa said party members were yet to select their presidential candidate.

"Even up until today we have not yet gone to the people to ask them the question of who they want to stand on behalf of us and contest for the presidency," Dabengwa said

Dabengwa said the president of the party whould only be the president of the party and not be a president of the country at the same time. Dabengwa said self-rule could be promoted in the country if there was a separate national president and party president.

"In Zapu, it does not mean that since you are party president you should be the President of Zimbabwe as well, no, we separate the two. We say the person who is the president of the party should remain as the president of the party within the party itself. If he is chosen to be the candidate in the presidential election and wins, he should stop being president of the party and someone else will be selected to be the president of the party," said Dabengwa.

"We will do this so that whenever the president of the nation makes mistakes, the president of the party can call him and remind him that he was chosen by the people and should listen to the people. We separate all of this so that it is the people that control how their leader leads," he added.

Zapu's approach is contrary to that of the three other main political parties - Zanu PF, MDC-T and MDC - whose leaders have automatically been selected presidential candidates.

Earlier this year, Dabengwa said he would "gladly" step down if the new constitution barred him from contesting in the presidential plebiscite due to age limit.