News / Local
Mwonzora's MDC faces uncertain future
28 Mar 2022 at 06:53hrs | Views
THE MDC Alliance led by Douglas Mwonzora's political future is in limbo after it failed to win a single parliamentary or local government seat in the by-elections held at the weekend.
Party officials yesterday failed to respond to media enquiries on the back of unconfirmed reports that Mwonzora had been suspended from the party with immediate effect.
The suspension was announced in a letter, whose authenticity could not be confirmed at the time of going to print, addressed to Mwonzora dated March 27, 2022 by ZimPF secretary-general and alliance secretariat co-ordinator, Marakia Bomani.
Mwonzora, however, is scheduled to hold a Press conference today.
By-elections for the National Assembly and local government seats were caused mainly by Mwonzora's recall of officials from a rival faction, but recriminations of the poor performance were immediate if the suspension is true, coming before the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission announced the full set of results.
Its current Members of Parliament and councillors, including Mwonzora himself, were elected under the leadership of Nelson Chamisa. The party faces an uncertain future leading to the 2023 polls.
When contacted for comment, Mwonzora's spokesperson Lloyd Damba flatly refused to comment on the election outcome.
"I do not talk to the media, you know that, don't call me," he said.
Analysts are, however, of the view that the by-elections have left the party exposed.
"The by-elections now confirm who the major political parties are, the Mwonzora aspect was not going to pull out a lot of votes," analyst Vivid Gwede
said.
"This shows that he did not have the capacity and as a viable project his party might be in doubt," another analyst Prolific Mataruse said.
Rashweat Mukundu said Zanu-PF tried to re-establish one-party dominance through the backdoor by splitting the opposition.
"That seems to have failed, meaning that we are back to where we were in the past, a political space dominated by two parties. This also marks the beginning of the end of the political career of Mwonzora and unfortunately, the end of the name MDC which is a historic name," Mukundu said.
Party officials yesterday failed to respond to media enquiries on the back of unconfirmed reports that Mwonzora had been suspended from the party with immediate effect.
The suspension was announced in a letter, whose authenticity could not be confirmed at the time of going to print, addressed to Mwonzora dated March 27, 2022 by ZimPF secretary-general and alliance secretariat co-ordinator, Marakia Bomani.
Mwonzora, however, is scheduled to hold a Press conference today.
By-elections for the National Assembly and local government seats were caused mainly by Mwonzora's recall of officials from a rival faction, but recriminations of the poor performance were immediate if the suspension is true, coming before the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission announced the full set of results.
Its current Members of Parliament and councillors, including Mwonzora himself, were elected under the leadership of Nelson Chamisa. The party faces an uncertain future leading to the 2023 polls.
"I do not talk to the media, you know that, don't call me," he said.
Analysts are, however, of the view that the by-elections have left the party exposed.
"The by-elections now confirm who the major political parties are, the Mwonzora aspect was not going to pull out a lot of votes," analyst Vivid Gwede
said.
"This shows that he did not have the capacity and as a viable project his party might be in doubt," another analyst Prolific Mataruse said.
Rashweat Mukundu said Zanu-PF tried to re-establish one-party dominance through the backdoor by splitting the opposition.
"That seems to have failed, meaning that we are back to where we were in the past, a political space dominated by two parties. This also marks the beginning of the end of the political career of Mwonzora and unfortunately, the end of the name MDC which is a historic name," Mukundu said.
Source - NewsDay Zimbabwe
