The MDC want to run the country, but they can't even run their party

The MDC is proving to be quite an incompetent and disorganised party under Nelson Chamisa's rule.

They have alienated allies and brought in enemies, like Robert and Grace Mugabe's proxy party the National Patriotic Front (NPF). Their party manifesto had parts copied straight from the South African Constitution, and their new spokesperson has gone on record openly criticising Chamisa for, among other things, his leader's absurd promise of high-speed trains for Zimbabwe that will travel twice the current world speed record.

Now, it seems, at the most crucial time, undertaking the most vital action, they completely messed up the simplest of tasks.

The MDC Alliance has failed to field candidates in at least 90 wards countrywide. MDC Alliance spokesperson Welshman Ncube confirmed the failure yesterday.

"I cannot give you the figures off the top of my head, but we did not field candidates in just under a 100 wards. There are various reasons including individual candidates failing to provide up-to-date rate accounts and the confusion on the day of the nomination court as well as prior to it. In other areas we just messed up," Ncube said.

"We have fielded candidates in all but around 90 council wards countrywide. It is actually an improvement on the 2013 elections where as the MDC-T we could not have candidates in nearly 500 wards. However, it is still an astonishing failure we pride ourselves as a government-in-waiting and that the 2013 election had issues around the security of candidates which we do not have now."

"This time it's an internal matter that has to do with lack of organisation and divisions along factional lines especially related to the MDC-T component of the alliance," Ncube said.

This is a simply astonishing admission.

That the MDC who, as Ncube said, see themselves as a "government-in-waiting", can not even register candidates in a normal and reasonable way is a massive indictment on their basic organisational abilities.

If they can't get one of the far more simple tasks in an election campaign right, then this has to worry any person who thinks they can run the intricacies of a country and the complex affairs of state.

Sometimes it seems like the MDC is just playing politics and gives little seriousness to the actions that require careful thought and procedure. The lackadaisical way they merely cut-and-pasted from the South African Constitution to their party manifesto and hoped no one would notice is highly symptomatic of the amateurish way the party is being currently run.

When an African Studies Professor in the UK, who had come to hear Chamisa speak over a month ago, called him "out of his depth", these words now seem extremely prophetic.

Chamisa has tried to distract Zimbabweans with his lack of leadership skills with a modest amount of charisma, and stunts like doing a few press-ups for a braying crowd.

However, Zimbabweans will not be distracted any longer.

The once mighty opposition party which rose out of sweat, blood and tears under the likes of Morgan Tsvangirai is now a parody of its former self.

Chamisa has sunk the MDC name lower and lower. In essence, he is making them completely unelectable.

He has not lost in a battle of ideas, which would be commendable. He has not faltered in a strong vision for the future of Zimbabwe, that we are still waiting for.

No, he is simply losing the battle because the public is witnessing a party that is constantly messing up, to borrow Ncube's own words.

That this group of MDC leaders wants to run the country would be a fine joke, if it wasn't so serious.