MDC-T hopefuls face off in crunch meeting

MDC-T interim president Thokozani Khupe and acting secretary general faced off in a stormy meeting yesterday to resolve the dispute over the voters roll to be used at the party’s extraordinary meeting slated for this weekend.

The opposition party postponed its congress last weekend to this Sunday after the principals failed to agree on a voters roll to be used.

Mwonzora allegedly tried to sneak in a doctored voters roll staffed with names of his backers who were not part of the 2014 structures, that according to the Supreme Court ruling in March, have to convene the elective congress to replace the late founding leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

The party was also forced to hold a national council meeting at deputy national chairman Elias Mudzuri’s home where they resolved to audit the voters roll.

At a meeting yesterday, Mwonzora allegedly struggled to produce his version of the voters roll which he claimed represented the party’s 2014 structures.

Khupe was said to be armed with a copy of the 2014 structures favoured to the party by suspended organising secretary Abednico Bhebhe.

The meeting was attended by all the candidates that include Mudzuri and acting chairman
Morgen Komichi.

Also in attendance was Gift Chimanikire, who was the deputy organizing secretary and Gandi Mudzingwa, the secretary for elections.

Each of the four presidential candidates was accompanied by two election agents.

“The meeting was stormy and it was resolved that the party uses Bhebhe’s list of the 2014 structures. Mwonzora struggled to produce his roll,” an insider said.

“As we speak (yesterday evening) the eight election agents are in a meeting verifying the structures under the supervision of Mudzingwa and Chimanikire. They are comparing Mwonzora’s roll and the one supplied by Bhebhe.

“On Wednesday, provincial structures represented by the provincial chairman, organizing secretary and secretary general will come and verify the provincial structures. The voters roll will now be presented to the national standing committee for approval for use at the congress.”

All the teams report to Komichi who was given the role to oversee the verification process.

The insider said the party was contemplating using a printed roll fearing that a soft copy could be hacked and manipulated.

At the national council meeting held on Saturday, Komichi accused Mwonzora of hacking computers at the party headquarters.

Komichi wrote on his Twitter handle last night that: “The legacy of president Dr Richard Morgan Tsvangirai can only be restored by the 2014 congress delegates. So all the 2014 congress delegates are welcome to the EOC [extraordinary congress] to elect a genuine replacement of our beloved late president on 27th December 2020.”

Mashakada was not reachable for comment yesterday. NewsDay.