MDC secretary general Douglas Mwonzora says he will retain his position at congress if the elections are free and fair. “Given a free ...
MDC secretary general Douglas Mwonzora says he will retain
his position at congress if the elections are free and fair.
“Given a free and fair election, I will definitely win, but
quite a number of things have to be done. An independent electoral commission
has to put its foot down to avoid cheating and it must also make sure that
those things that must be availed to candidates must be availed on time. The
voters roll must be availed to all the candidates as agreed. It was supposed to
be availed on April 29, but we are yet to receive it.
There must be
watertight security and also we must avoid as much as possible the running of
this election by staff members of the MDC. So it depends on the way the
commission will conduct this election. I do not see why people continue
underestimating me every time. In 2014 I had one nomination and I went on to win
by more than 1 000 votes, in 2011 I had one nomination and went on to win by
more than 1 000 votes,” he told the Standard.
On the Chamisa judgement, he said :”What is important at
this point in time is not individual views about the judgement. What is
important is that a judgement exists and that as a responsible leadership we
have to do something about it. There are two choices, either the judgement is
complied with or that there is an appeal. When we held the standing committee
meeting, it was directed that there be an appeal, so that is the collective
decision. Individual decisions don’t matter anymore.
Well, there are certain things that we have learnt from
this judgement. As a lawyer myself, I am not satisfied at the manner in which
this matter was handled by our own representative. In my view, this is an
indication that there is need for more internal dialogue within the party.
There was absolutely no need to get to this stage. In other words, what is
happening now was avoidable, we could have been more vigilant.
COMMENTS