MDC-T bars Chamisa, senior official under probe for 'vote buying'

The MDC-T top brass has barred its organising secretary Nelson Chamisa from taking charge of its elective congress set for this month, while a senior party official is under probe for 'vote buying' during a nomination process in Masvingo.

The party has roped in the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions to organise and run the congress after the standing committee turned down moves to engage the Zimbabwe Electoral Commision (Zec).

Douglas Mwonzora, the party spokesperson, yesterday confirmed that the standing committee met on Monday in the capital and resolved to bar Chamisa and his department staff from handling the processes leading to the congress.

"During the nomination process, the organising department is not going to have a role, they (ZCTU) will accredit, do the balloting without anyone of us having a say because we are interested parties," Mwonzora said.

"There are a number of candidates, not only those vying for the same posts, but all candidates have raised concerns. We have also agreed that even the staff of the organising department should not be allowed to have anything to do with the process."

Asked whether nominations done in Harare and Chitungwiza would be nullified, given that they were conducted by the organising department amid allegations of irregularities, Mwonzora said the party was yet to receive complaints. Reporters were that Chamisa and Mwonzora, who are vying for the secretary-general's post, came close to exchanging blows.

Mwonzora clashed with Chamisa following reports that he had initially won Harare's nomination to become party secretary general before a re-run confirmed Chamisa for the post.

While Mwonzora seemed to infer that he had been underdone by the decision to hold the nomination process in Harare at a time he was away in Rusape for his political violence trial, Chamisa argued that the spokesperson's presence would not have made a difference.

The former Nyanga North legislator said while the party had considered bringing in Zec to take charge of the internal polls but given the chaotic nature of its primaries in the run-up to the harmonised polls last July, the idea had suffered a stillbirth.

"The confidence of the candidates is important, we do not want an election that generates other problems afterwards," Mwonzora said.

"Had we enjoyed good working relations with Zec, we would have asked them to run our congress but we still have problems with the credibility and impartiality of Zec. The system in South Africa is good, where parties can request the Independent Electoral Commission to assist and pay a fee

He also confirmed that the MDC-T was also investigating reports of vote buying after a group of provincial council members were reportedly taken for a beer binge hours before the crucial vote to nominate the party's top hierarchy a few days ago.

"Nobody has been mentioned by name, but the standing committee also received reports that there may have been a case of vote buying in Masvingo as well as undue interference in which people from other provinces were allowed to vote," added Mwonzora.

Chamisa is leading the pack in the fight to land the coveted post of secretary-general, previously held by former Finance minister Tendai Biti, who now heads another faction of the splintered former parliamentary majority party.

However as if to illustrate the deep seated divisions rocking the faction and the level of confusion, Chamisa claimed the party's leadership never met and Mwonzora was parroting his personal opinion.

"The standing committee did not meet on Monday, it will meet on Wednesday (today)," Chamisa said last night. "That is the view of an individual to justify a particular narrative and I think we must now begin to distinguish between the views of an individual and those of the party."

Chamisa has also been blamed for the party's humiliating poll loss in the elections last year, won resoundingly by President Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF.