Tsvangirai conducts door-to-door consultations in Manicaland

By Tichaona Sibanda
14 January 2008

MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai spent three days in Manicaland last week knocking on doors and urging voters to vote for his party in the coming presidential and parliamentary elections.
The MDC leader took his message door-to-door in Nyanga, Mutasa, Chipinge, Chimanimani, Mutare South and central from Thursday to Saturday. His aides described the tour as very successful in making personal contacts with voters.

Manicaland spokesman Pishai Muchauraya said door-to-door campaigning was an essential part of every political campaign because of its effectiveness to build name recognition for the candidate.
‘Tsvangirai was able to visit ordinary villagers, households and men and women on the streets to discuss the current political and economic situation in the country. This was a humble exercise that proved to be very effective,’ Muchauraya said.

The Manicaland spokesman said in many cases during the consultations, people wanted to know what was taking place at the talks in Pretoria and if the political situation was conducive enough for the MDC to contest the elections.

‘These were frank discussions between the President (Tsvangirai) and the people. A lot of them were so happy to see him in person and in turn he told them he was very committed to reach out and meet the people in all the provinces,’ Muchauraya added.

Tsvangirai’s team is hoping that his new campaign style, appealing more directly to voters, will help his party in Manicaland, which only holds two parliamentary seats out of the current 15.

The MDC is to hold 300 rallies across the country in the coming weeks, with the majority of them planned for the rural areas. Parliamentary and presidential polls are scheduled for March, but the opposition has still not said it will definitely participate. Both factions of the MDC are believed to be waiting for the conclusion of the mediation talks before making concrete statements on the elections.

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