Chaos rocks MDC-T congress

CHAOS reigned supreme at the MDC-T Midlands South provincial congress as rules guiding the conduct of elections were disregarded willy-nilly, angering the losers.

The chaotic elections on Thursday saw incumbent chairperson, Lillian Timveos, and her grouping linked to organising secretary Nelson Chamisa's faction romping to victory.

Timveos beat former Gweru Urban lawmaker Timothy Mukahlera to the provincial chairperson post. The election was presided over by Chamisa despite media reports that he had been blocked from conducting the internal polls.

Former Midlands South party spokesperson, James Tsuro also fell by the wayside.

Tsuro alleged that there were many violations during the voting process among them voting by delegates through raising their hands instead of the traditional secret ballot system.

"There were a lot of irregularities which characterised the voting process. It had been agreed that delegates would vote through secret ballot but this was changed all of a sudden as people voted by raising their hands; a system which is prone to manipulation.

"The vote was hastily arranged so much that it took less than two hours to finish the process yet in other provinces it took more time," said Tsuro.

Sources privy to what transpired said there were two distinct camps with those supporting Timveos siding with Mkoba legislator Amos Chibaya who is gunning for the party organising secretary post while Mukahlera had the backing of Sesel Zvidzai who is the MP for Gweru Urban.

The two camps had a national outlook with the Timveos camp reportedly having the backing of Chamisa while those in support of Mukahlera are fighting in the corner of party spokesperson, Douglas Mwonzora.

Chamisa and Mwonzora are set to fight it out for the post of secretary-general at the party's national congress to be held later this month.

Soon after the re-election of Timveos, her grouping nominated Chamisa for the post of secretary general ahead of congress while Mwonzora was nominated for the party spokesperson post.

Other party officials to be nominated included embattled party leader Morgan Tsvangirai for the same post, Thokozani Khupe (deputy president), Lovemore Moyo (chairman) and Morgan Komichi (deputy chairman).

Paurina Mupariwa was nominated for the deputy secretary general position while Tapiwa Mashakada was endorsed for the treasurer-general post. Chibaya was named as the faction's preferred candidate for the organising secretary post while Thabitha Khumalo was nominated for the deputy-treasurer general post.

Efforts to get comment from Chamisa were futile as his mobile phone was not reachable.