MDC-T shortlists 4 000 primary election candidates

MDC-T has shortlisted 4 000 individuals to contest each other in the party's primaries for the right to represent the party in this year's elections, with over 900 applicants left disgruntled after being disqualified for various reasons, a situation that might see the party losing a number of supporters.

The party also affirmed its controversial decision to protect sitting Members of the House of Assembly by insisting that all current MDC-T MPs will go through a confirmation process to avoid the primaries and also blocked a number of aspirants by implementing an unpopular decision to bar those who have not been in party structures for at least five years from contesting.

In an interview with Sunday News yesterday, the party's national spokesperson, Mr Douglas Mwonzora, said the national organising department had met and finalised the list of candidates, which they had handed over to the election directorate.

"The applications have been processed and I can tell you that 4 000 candidates were shortlisted to stand in the primaries with over 900 being disqualified as they did not meet the criteria for one to be considered.

"What is happening now is that the list has been handed over to the election directorate, in preparation for the primaries that will be held after the referendum," said Mr Mwonzora.

The national spokesperson said it was unfortunate that they had to disqualify some individuals but they had no choice but to stick to the set criteria.

"What I must emphasise is that we stick to our resolution that everywhere where there was a MDC-T sitting MP they would have a confirmation exercise first and if the people confirm their candidacy there won't be any need to hold the primaries in those areas where we currently don't have any representative that is where we will straight away hold the primaries," he said.

Mr Mwonzora said legislators who fail to garner a two-thirds support from their constituencies will go for primary elections.

He said it was essential that party members realised that the onus was now with them to decide who was going to represent them, hence the need for them to carefully scrutinise all interested individuals.

However, Mr Mwonzora said at this stage they could not reveal the full list of all the approved candidates saying first it had to be scrutinised by the party's elections directorate.

Commenting on reports that the party was at loggerheads over Bulawayo provincial chairperson Gorden Moyo's candidacy in Makokoba replacing Deputy Prime Minister Thokozani Khupe, Mr Mwonzora said while they had received Mr Moyo's application the people of Makokoba still had the power to reject him.

"Yes we saw Mr Moyo's application but he won't get special treatment, actually he will go through all the necessary procedures and the people of Makokoba still can easily reject him if they feel he is not their preferred candidate," he said.

Last month MDC-T insisted that all applications by individuals interested in representing the party in this year's elections, who failed to meet the 31 January deadline will be disqualified unless in a few exceptional cases which were supported by valid reasons for the late submissions.

Bulawayo was one of the most affected provinces as most of the aspiring candidates submitted their applications on 5 February after there was a mix up in the province, with the provincial leadership initially saying the deadline had been extended.