Tsvangirai, Mujuru coalition to field one presidential candidate

ZimPF leader, Joice Mujuru has said the ongoing opposition coalition talks seek to present a single candidate for the presidency, while parties would still field parliamentary representatives as they see fit.

Mujuru apprised a party provincial executive meeting in Bulawayo about work towards a coalition with a single candidate to face President Robert Mugabe.

"The coalition does not stop us from building our own party," she said.

"The coalition is primarily about fielding a single opposition presidential candidate in 2018."

Mujuru is in talks with MDC-T leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, among other pro-democracy groups, and she said all parties are important.

"It is not for us to belittle other opposition parties as small or negligible. All parties are important. All we want is one presidential candidate," she said.

"Our enemy and target is Zanu-PF. There is going to be a lot of giving and taking in the coalition. We must choose the best candidates in constituencies and wards. No to mediocrity and imposition of candidates."

This comes as tensions are rising in MDC-T after Tsvangirai's deputy, Thokozani Khupe declared that her party does not need to form an alliance in Matabeleland.

Khupe argued that, instead, the MDC-T needed help in the Mashonaland provinces, where it has performed badly in polls.

In response, former Water minister Samuel Sipepa-Nkomo, who left the MDC-T to join the People's Democratic Party (PDP) as vice-president, before jumping ship to join Mujuru, warned ZimPF will wrest all seats from Tsvangirai.

"ZimPF is very popular in Bulawayo. Another party [MDC-T] was once popular here and took seats in the 2013 elections and handed them over to Zanu-PF," he said in reference to MDC-T's decision to recall legislators, who had defected to PDP leading to by-elections, which the main opposition party did not contest, leading to Zanu-PF winning them.

"The people are angry about that. If they [MDC-T] do not want to compromise in the coalition talks, no problem. We [ZimPF] will win all the seats in Bulawayo.

"We are agreeable to the coalition, but not to be bullied and told that we do not have support. Mujuru, you are the last hope for Zimbabwe. That is why people, including those who never cared about politics before, are flocking to this party."