Zvidzayi broke down at the sitting of the nomination court

MDC-T candidate for Gweru Urban, Mr Sessil Zvidzayi, broke down at the sitting of the nomination court in Gweru early Saturday morning after he failed to convince officials to reject a rival's nomination papers.

Mr Zvidzayi had wanted officials to throw away former Gweru mayor, Mr Tedious Chimombe's papers on the basis that they had an open palm symbol similar to that of the MDC-T.

Mr Chimombe, who was fired from MDC-T on allegations of corruption, filed his papers to contest in Gweru Urban as an independent candidate. He drew the ire, and tears of his rival, Mr Zvidzayi after he used an open palm with his picture as his campaign symbol.

According to sources, a teary Mr Zvidzayi argued that allowing Mr Chimombe to use the open palm symbol in the 31 July harmonised elections would "confuse" the electorate as it is the same as that of the MDC-T.

The nomination court, however, dismissed his objections arguing that the MDC-T symbol was black in colour and had its president, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai's picture on it while Mr Chimombe's was red and had his picture.

The sources said Mr Zvidzayi was too emotional to take the explanation and promptly started wailing, shocking officials and fellow aspiring candidates.

Mr Chimombe confirmed the incident yesterday. He said he also failed to control himself and laughed his lungs out on seeing Mr Zvidzayi in tears.

Mr Chimombe said his symbol was different from that of the MDC-T.