News / National
MDC-T factionalism takes new tribal twist
05 Apr 2013 at 01:32hrs | Views
Some aspiring MDC-T parliamentary candidates are calling on party supporters to vote only for individuals who originally come from their constituencies in the imminent primaries that are set to be keenly contested.
The MDC-T leadership is headed for a showdown with some officials after the party came up with a myriad of rules and regulations meant to bar aspiring candidates from representing the party in the harmonised elections.
There is also a clause in the rules guiding the conduct of its primary elections giving the national council power to stop primary elections in certain constituencies as a way of protecting some "sacred cows" from being challenged.
The party met in Harare yesterday and the imposition of candidates among other issues, were discussed.
A copy of the rules and regulations guiding the selection of candidates for national and local government elections seen by The Herald also gives the national council power to disqualify some selected candidates.
Article 16 that deals with powers of the national council indicates that the committee has absolute discretion of determining the manner and process of any selection including the power of making any appointment for any position.
"16.3 The national council shall have the power of directing that no primary elections shall be held in any constituency for a good reason," reads the provision.
"16.4 The national council may disqualify or reject any selected candidate where it is satisfied that it is not in the interests of the party for that candidate to stand as the party's candidate in any election.
"16.5 In the event of such a disqualification or rejection the national council may call for another selection process and election or may itself choose the candidate by a â…” majority."
The document also states that all candidates standing for the elections would be approved by the national council which is expected to consider the candidate's adherence to its objectives, the candidate's history in the party and their standing in the community. The rules also say every elected official shall accept the right of the party of recalling the candidate.
Party insiders who spoke to The Herald said the leadership had also put in mechanisms to accommodate people who have been working for civil society groups aligned to the party.
"All along they have been saying prospective candidates should have been a member of the party for at least five years but now they are saying or anyone who has been working closely with the party for five years. We can see that this is an attempt to accommodate civil society people who have not been with the party.
"We have people who bore the brunt of being MDC-T members but now are going to be sidelined because they want to accommodate some people," said a source.
The code reiterates that a sitting Member of Parliament shall be confirmed by a simple majority of members of a District Council, whose quorum shall be at least two thirds.
It says primary elections would only be held in constituencies where the sitting member would not have been confirmed. Another source added that the MDC-T wanted to uproot some "touts, vendors and vagrants' who were elected on the party ticket in the last elections when it came up with tightened provisions.
"If you look at Article Four you will realise that all the sitting councillors and legislators who embarrassed the party because of their incompetence will be disqualified. Some MPs made embarrassing contributions in Parliament in the last few years because they are not educated while others did not contribute at all," said the source.
MDC- T spokesperson Mr Douglas Mr Mwonzora is on record saying the sitting MPs would be treated separately.
"Where we have sitting MPs, that person would be subjected to the structures of the party within the constituency who must confirm him or her.
"If confirmed by two-thirds of the structures, that person would avoid primary elections. If they fail to garner the required support they will go for primary elections," he said.
Recently Mr Mwonzora confirmed a large number of Diasporans were eyeing seats on an MDC-T ticket.
The MDC-T leadership is headed for a showdown with some officials after the party came up with a myriad of rules and regulations meant to bar aspiring candidates from representing the party in the harmonised elections.
There is also a clause in the rules guiding the conduct of its primary elections giving the national council power to stop primary elections in certain constituencies as a way of protecting some "sacred cows" from being challenged.
The party met in Harare yesterday and the imposition of candidates among other issues, were discussed.
A copy of the rules and regulations guiding the selection of candidates for national and local government elections seen by The Herald also gives the national council power to disqualify some selected candidates.
Article 16 that deals with powers of the national council indicates that the committee has absolute discretion of determining the manner and process of any selection including the power of making any appointment for any position.
"16.3 The national council shall have the power of directing that no primary elections shall be held in any constituency for a good reason," reads the provision.
"16.4 The national council may disqualify or reject any selected candidate where it is satisfied that it is not in the interests of the party for that candidate to stand as the party's candidate in any election.
"16.5 In the event of such a disqualification or rejection the national council may call for another selection process and election or may itself choose the candidate by a â…” majority."
The document also states that all candidates standing for the elections would be approved by the national council which is expected to consider the candidate's adherence to its objectives, the candidate's history in the party and their standing in the community. The rules also say every elected official shall accept the right of the party of recalling the candidate.
Party insiders who spoke to The Herald said the leadership had also put in mechanisms to accommodate people who have been working for civil society groups aligned to the party.
"All along they have been saying prospective candidates should have been a member of the party for at least five years but now they are saying or anyone who has been working closely with the party for five years. We can see that this is an attempt to accommodate civil society people who have not been with the party.
"We have people who bore the brunt of being MDC-T members but now are going to be sidelined because they want to accommodate some people," said a source.
The code reiterates that a sitting Member of Parliament shall be confirmed by a simple majority of members of a District Council, whose quorum shall be at least two thirds.
It says primary elections would only be held in constituencies where the sitting member would not have been confirmed. Another source added that the MDC-T wanted to uproot some "touts, vendors and vagrants' who were elected on the party ticket in the last elections when it came up with tightened provisions.
"If you look at Article Four you will realise that all the sitting councillors and legislators who embarrassed the party because of their incompetence will be disqualified. Some MPs made embarrassing contributions in Parliament in the last few years because they are not educated while others did not contribute at all," said the source.
MDC- T spokesperson Mr Douglas Mr Mwonzora is on record saying the sitting MPs would be treated separately.
"Where we have sitting MPs, that person would be subjected to the structures of the party within the constituency who must confirm him or her.
"If confirmed by two-thirds of the structures, that person would avoid primary elections. If they fail to garner the required support they will go for primary elections," he said.
Recently Mr Mwonzora confirmed a large number of Diasporans were eyeing seats on an MDC-T ticket.
Source - news
