MDC pro-senate camp defiant over controversial poll

By Violet Gonda (running a bit late posted at 18:45)

25 November 2005

The MDC’s pro-senate camp on Friday held last minute door-to-door campaigns urging people to go out on Saturday and vote for their candidates. Despite deep divisions in the opposition party over the controversial senate elections, the Deputy secretary-general Gift Chimanikire said the pro-senate camp is encouraged by the response they received on their campaign trail.

But meanwhile in Harare, there were skirmishes at the MDC Harvest House Headquarters Friday between the 2 camps. A few people were arrested, and Chimanikire blamed the anti senate lobby for the violence.

The highly respected civic group and pressure group Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition and the Women of Zimbabwe Arise respectively, revealed Thursday that a survey they conducted this past week showed that 95.06 percent of those interviewed were opposed to the senate. 

Chimanikire said the Crisis survey is not accurate, and as a political party, what is important is occupying political space. “As a politician I have seen them (civic groups) as peripheral organisations … as far as we are concerned, when we formed the MDC where was WOZA? Where was this organisation that we’re are talking about? They were not there to occupy political space. They may have an opinion but as politicians we are bound to occupy political space and this is exactly what we are doing.”

There are equally strong arguments over this issue. The boycott faction led by MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai believes strongly that the senate election is an unnecessary expense which is being forced on Zimbabweans who want food and shelter. On the other hand those who are for participation, especially in Matabeleland where the MDC is the majority party, insist that an electoral boycott would relinquish "political space" gained to ZANU PF.

The differences and verbal personal attacks by the leadership have seriously divided the opposition party much to the dismay of many of its supporters at home, in the Diaspora and western governments that saw the MDC as a government-in-waiting. Observers expect a low voter turnout saying outside Matabeleland, few people will bother to vote.