MDC Alliance deny claims by Chihwayi that primary election violated pact

The MDC Alliance has dismissed claims by Welshman Ncube aligned party activist Kurauone Chihwayi that the party violated its 2018 electoral pact in Sunday’s Kuwadzana constituency primary elections which saw a candidate aligned to Nelson Chamisa’s MDC romp to victory.

Chihwayi is originally from the MDC once led by Ncube and complained that the Chamisa led MDC violated the 2018 electoral pact during a primary election to replace the late MP Miriam Mushayi.

The primary poll was won by Johnson Matambo, a party activist aligned to Chamisa.

Matambo polled 757 votes with challengers, Girison Mandere polling 526, Fabie Qabuko (243), Rebecca Nengomasha (168) and Moses Mlanji (11), Chihwayi pulled out for unstated reasons.

“I withdrew from the Kuwadzana MDC Alliance Primary election and I stated my reasons to my party leaders. It’s not for me to endorse winners and losers, I made my point clear in my communication,” Chihwayi said.

MDC Alliance spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere said the party had long gone beyond being an electoral pact and has become a unified political party.

“The MDC Alliance is a unified political party that has long evolved from the Alliance Agreement. We are governed by unified electoral rules derived from the MDC Alliance Constitution,” she said.

“An overarching principle that guides our candidate selection procedure is that all candidates must come from the people.

“We do not believe in imposing candidates on the electorate or deciding candidates pursuant to an elite pact.

“As the huge turnout in the Kuwadzana primaries showed, the people have a clear desire to express themselves on who their next MP should be.

“As a result, we are in the process of reviewing our rules to strengthen the role of community leaders and the grassroots in our candidate selection process to ensure that it’s watertight,” Mahere said.