News / National
Opposition parties' coalition to challenge Zanu-PF in 2018
08 Jan 2015 at 16:01hrs | Views
BULAWAYO - A number of Zimbabwe's opposition political parties, including two led by former stalwarts of the ruling Zanu-PF have agreed to form a united front to wrestle power from the latter in 2018.
Among these are ZAPU and Mavambo/ Kusile/ Dawn, led by former Zanu-PF politburo members, Dumiso Dabengwa and Simba Makoni.
Dabengwa said the experience of the 2013 elections taught his party and other opposition political parties including the Movement for Democratic Change led by Welshman Ncube to devise a better approach to the 2018 elections.
He said the parties have agreed to form a united front committed to accountable government.
"ZAPU was involved from the outset around April 2014 alongside the MDC, MKD, and the newly-formed MDC-Renewal that broke away from MDC-T.
"Negotiations among the parties led to the completion in July 2014 of an agreement that represented common positions on most contentious issues," Dabengwa said.
These, he said, include the principle of shared and rotational leadership, retention of the identities of the constituent parties under this Coalition of Democrats (CODE), and agreement to work out a method for selecting a slate of candidates so that the coalition parties would not compete against each other.
Dabengwa said his party took the coalition document to its structures and membership, and in the New Year they shall get back to their CODE negotiating partners to chart the way forward.
"We have also been engaged for many months in the reshaping and strengthening of our party structures, and next month we plan to complete the re-composition of our provincial structures inside the country and in the Diaspora," he said.
Meanwhile, MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai, last week also indicated that he was willing to work with any democratic movement to counter the ruling Zanu-PF.
It is uncertain if the other political parties in the would accept to work with him as they have on numerous occasions accused him of being un-democratic.
Among these are ZAPU and Mavambo/ Kusile/ Dawn, led by former Zanu-PF politburo members, Dumiso Dabengwa and Simba Makoni.
Dabengwa said the experience of the 2013 elections taught his party and other opposition political parties including the Movement for Democratic Change led by Welshman Ncube to devise a better approach to the 2018 elections.
He said the parties have agreed to form a united front committed to accountable government.
"ZAPU was involved from the outset around April 2014 alongside the MDC, MKD, and the newly-formed MDC-Renewal that broke away from MDC-T.
These, he said, include the principle of shared and rotational leadership, retention of the identities of the constituent parties under this Coalition of Democrats (CODE), and agreement to work out a method for selecting a slate of candidates so that the coalition parties would not compete against each other.
Dabengwa said his party took the coalition document to its structures and membership, and in the New Year they shall get back to their CODE negotiating partners to chart the way forward.
"We have also been engaged for many months in the reshaping and strengthening of our party structures, and next month we plan to complete the re-composition of our provincial structures inside the country and in the Diaspora," he said.
Meanwhile, MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai, last week also indicated that he was willing to work with any democratic movement to counter the ruling Zanu-PF.
It is uncertain if the other political parties in the would accept to work with him as they have on numerous occasions accused him of being un-democratic.
Source - CAJ News
