HARARE – Nelson Chamisa has invited leaders of political parties who backed his campaign for the July 30 elections to integrate their parties with his MDC-T to form the MDC Alliance.
The MDC Alliance, a coalition of seven political parties, participated in the election, winning 64 parliamentary seats and Chamisa narrowly lost to Zanu PF’s Emmerson Mnangagwa in the race for President, according to official results.
Now, Chamisa is ready to build a new party, almost from scratch.
All the parties will collapse their structures ahead of a congress to be held within 12 months where all positions will be contested.
This was a resolution adopted during a meeting of the MDC-T National Council in Harare on Wednesday, which came a day after Chamisa met his coalition partners.
The resolution said: “The party will put into effect an earlier resolution to integrate Alliance partners into the MDC.”
MDC Alliance spokesperson Professor Welshman Ncube said contrary to what has been speculated that the MDC Alliance would disintegrate after the disappointing election setback, they had plans to build the party from bottom up.
He said the Alliance partners were committed to building the party, while foregoing their former names and positions.
“There will be no fight for positions, in any event the constitutive decision is that of the Alliance and not the MDC-T,” Prof Ncube told ZimLive.com.
He said the integration of all the parties had already begun and would eventually culminate into a congress that would be open for all.
He added: “At congress, everyone will be treated the same, as equals, and all positions would be vacant. The aim going forward now is to build the MDC Alliance movement starting from branches, going to ward committees, in every village and so on.
“The integration is not about positions but building an Alliance to make sure there is penetration by the party to reach every place where voters are. Integration into the Alliance is not an Eldorado for gold but building a political party that is formidable and ready to win elections and form a government. We are all ready to work, for the task ahead.”
Prof Ncube said they could have come up with another name but for the fact that their MPs were elected on an MDC Alliance ticket and would represent the party for the next five years.
The Alliance is made up of MDC-T, MDC, People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Multi-Racial Christian Democrats (MCD), ZAPU, Transform Zimbabwe (TZ) and Zanu Ndonga. The Zimbabwe People First has shown willingness to also collapse its structures and join the party.
