'Ignore us at your peril,' says Biti

The unity pact between the MDC splinter groups led by Welshman Ncube and Sekai Holland will be a game-changer, says a confident Tendai Biti, co-secretary general of the united party.

"Ill-informed parties ignore the emerging political force at their peril as we mean business," said Biti.

"Both MDC-T and Zanu-PF should be warned that the majority of their former followers are now with the reunited MDC."

He said the party was receiving new members in their thousands. Biti told The Zimbabwean that they had learnt a lot from previous mistakes and would plug all loopholes used by Zanu-PF to rig elections. Together with full implementation of outstanding reforms, he was confident they would win the 2018 elections.

The former Minister of Finance, said both Zanu-PF and MDC-T had their weaknesses rooted in violence, which made the new coalition the people's choice.To enhance its prospects of winning future elections, the party is holding talks with Simba Makoni's Mavambo/Dawn/Kusile and Zapu, led by Dumiso Dabengwa, for a grand coalition.

Both Zanu-PF and MDC-T have dismissed the coalition as insignificant to Zimbabwe politics. But some observers have called on Tsvangirai to join forces with it to avoid political oblivion.

"MDC-T will beat its rivals at the polls like we have done before and have nothing to benefit from merging with the so-called unified MDC," said Obert Gutu, MDC-T spokesperson.