MDC describes Herald report on Tsvangirai as ‘illusionary’

By Tichaona Sibanda
9 April 2008

The state controlled Herald reported on Wednesday that MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai asked Zanu-PF to accommodate him as one of the Vice Presidents in a government of national unity.

In its front-page article, the paper implies that Tsvangirai’s advisors told him a run-off against the Mugabe might not be in his best interests. Mugabe has so far refused to allow the electoral commission to release the results for the presidential election, which analysts believe he lost to Tsvangirai.

Quoting unnamed sources, the Herald alleges that the MDC leader last week sent Ian Makone, Elton Mangoma and Joe Mtizwa to negotiate with Zanu-PF officials, Nicholas Goche and Patrick Chinamasa, to avert a run-off and make Tsvangirai one of the country’s two Vice Presidents.

The MDC’s treasurer-general Elton Mangoma, who won a parliamentary seat in Makoni central in Manicaland, described the report as ‘absolute rubbish.’

‘For a start I’ve never met Chinamasa in my life and if you were to ask him how I look, he wouldn’t know. Therefore I’m not going to comment on yet more lies peddled by the discredited state media. We now have newsrooms packed with daydreamers,’ Mangoma said.

He added; ‘Instead of asking themselves why Mugabe is not releasing the results and telling the nation that the MDC won the elections, they’re wasting their energy trying to outwit each other in fiction writing.’

The MDC is fully aware of government manoeuvres to try and tamper with the results to force a rerun against Tsvangirai. Government agents are believed to be visiting each provincial centre, double-checking figures for the presidential vote.

‘They are free to do so just like we were able to collate our own results from outside each polling station. But whatever they do it won’t change a thing, because our figures show Tsvangirai won by a wider margin than we originally thought,’ Mangoma said.