MDC-T in election boycott u-turn

THE West has once again admitted to funding the MDC-T as part of encouraging the embattled opposition party to participate in future elections.

A delegation from the party will visit some European countries this week to receive funding.

This comes as the party has made a U-turn on participating in elections following chiding from Western countries which view the boycott as non-beneficial MDC-T secretary general Douglas Mwonzora was quoted by New Zimbabwe yesterday confirming that his party had abandoned its "no reform, no election" campaign.

The party's spokesperson Obert Gutu also told our Harare Bureau last night that his party was already preparing for the 2018 general elections.

It is understood that the new position on elections was adopted on the advice of US Congressman Gregory Simpkins, who visited Zimbabwe recently and censured the party for boycotting elections.

In his remarks which received a fair share of criticism from MDC-T then, Simpkins said: "We've heard that political parties here argue that it's tough to compete in elections. But we're saying they've to find a way of being effective rather than just saying it's too tough to compete.

"How can you criticise a process that you're not part of, one can't criticise a process that they've not even taken time to test When you test the process, you can say we tried to register our candidates or observers were turned away; you can point to examples.

"If you're not a part of it at all then it's as good as there is no opposition."

This is not the first time that the West has funded MDC-T in a futile attempt to unseat President Robert Mugabe and Zanu-PF.

In September 2000, the Westminster Foundation agreed to bankroll MDC to overthrow President Mugabe's government through any means.

This time, sources said, the West agreed to fund the MDC-T electoral campaign provided the party participated in future polls.

In the interview with New Zimbabwe, Mwonzora confirmed that he was leading a delegation to Europe that will meet various Western governments to fundraise for the party and to brief them on political developments in the country.

"The four-day visit has been made possible by the host countries which have invited us," he said. "Were also going to take that chance to meet with our party structures in these countries and intensify our 2018 political campaigns which have already started in earnest"

Asked about the party's "No Reforms No Election participation", Mwonzora said they had changed their political strategy.

"The game will never be the same in 2018 as we've changed our approach to the election," he said. "I can't tell you our new strategy at this moment because ifs still premature to reveal it, but I want to assure you that the game has changed for the better."

Gutu also confirmed the trip, but chanting a different tune as he claimed that Mwonzora and his delegation were solely invited by die party's EU-Ireland branch.

"They were invited by our UK-Ireland province, so it's a meeting with our structures in the UK," he said. "We have external provinces in various countries where we've a huge support base. It's an opportunity for our external structures in the UK to meet party leadership and this just a regular meeting."

Gutu added: "Our eyes are on 2018 and let's make sure that all hurdles that impede the conducting of free and fair elections are cleared."