Mutambara To Stand Aside For Makoni
A faction of Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has left the door open for an electoral pact with Zanu PF rebel, Simba Makoni, in a move likely to bolster the former finance minister’s challenge to President Robert Mugabe in presidential elections due on March 29.
A day after MDC founding leader Morgan Tsvangirai - who leads a faction of the party following a 2005 split - ruled out any electoral pact with Makoni, a rival faction led by Arthur Mutambara and which controls half the MDC’s parliamentary seats revealed on Monday that it was in talks with Makoni to create a “united front”.
Officials of the Mutambara faction’s national council met in Harare and resolved to pursue talks with Makoni.
Noting Makoni’s decision to stand for President, Professor Welshman Ncube, the secretary general of the MDC faction, said the national council had mandated the party’s management committee “to remain engaged with all progressive opposition formations desirous of creating a united front to confront the Mugabe regime in the forthcoming elections within a single candidate philosophy framework.”
New Zimbabwe.com understands from party sources that Mutambara will not contest the presidential elections in the event of a deal being reached with Makoni.
“It is something of a foregone conclusion that if Makoni is running, then Mutambara will stand down,” said one official.
Makoni declared his intentions to challenge Mugabe last week after talks aimed at reuniting the two MDC factions collapsed in a dispute over parliamentary seat allocations between the two groups. Tsvangirai’s group wanted a lion’s share of the seats.
President Robert Mugabe is seeking a sixth term in the March elections and Makoni is seen presenting the biggest threat to those ambitions.
(Source)