Posted to the web: 09/01/2009 00:18:31
MORGAN Tsvangirai will not face a challenge from within his own party at its annual conference due to be held in March as such a contest would be “illegal”, a spokesman said on Thursday.
State media speculated that Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was riven by internal divisions and the former trade union leader would likely face a challenge from a group of conspirators led by secretary general Tendai Biti and South Africa-based businessman, Strive Masiyiwa.
The facts, said a party spokesman in a statement, are that Tsvangirai and Biti’s terms, a mandate of which was picked at a March 19, 2006 congress, “expire in 2011”.
The MDC constitution limits the term of the party’s leader to just two terms. The spokesman would not explain if Tsvangirai would be eligible to stand again in 2011 or he would be forced to stand down as he is already in his second term.
The state-run Herald newspaper which printed claims of growing disquiet in the MDC “has climbed laughable heights in alleging non-existent divisions within the leadership of the MDC”, said the statement.
“Zimbabweans know that the only political divisions that exist are in Zanu PF where contrived accidents and succession disputes and factionalism are a reality and not fiction. The Herald has obviously mistaken the MDC for Zanu PF where internecine succession battles have
wrought deep rifts, mistrust and suspicion across the length and breadth of the dying party,” said the statement, sent from the email of party spokesman, Nelson Chamisa.
Tsvangirai is under pressure to join a five-year unity government with President Robert Mugabe and his MDC rival, Arthur Mutambara.
Should Tsvangirai join the government as Prime Minister this year, his MDC term would be over in 2011 which could create complications as he would still have some two years left in the unity government – a condition set down in print in a Constitutional Amendment Bill due before parliament on January 20.
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