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The Herald
Herald Reporter
The MDC-T interim president, Dr.Thokozani Khupe, left the extraordinary congress of her party in Harare yesterday. after being outraged by the chaos that marred the voting process.
The congress was intended to replace the late founder and leader of the party, Mr. Morgan Tsvangirai.
The voting process was marred by fistfights and haggling among voters who were unhappy with the electoral process.
Before leaving, Dr. Khupe had tried to stop the congress, but was attacked by those loyal to Mr. Mwonzora.
At press time, only Matabeleland North, Bulawayo, Chitungwiza and Manicaland had voted, while voting was expected to continue well into the night.
It was not immediately clear when the results will be available.
The extraordinary congress held at the Harare International Conference Center (HICC) was ordered by the Supreme Court to choose a replacement for Tsvangirai after the court, in a civil lawsuit, found that changes made after 2014 were against of the party’s own rules. The civil lawsuit involved only party members without State intervention.
Messrs. Douglas Mwonzora, Morgen Komichi, and engineer Elias Mudzuri took on the acting chairman of the party, Dr. Khupe, in the poll that was marred by logistical challenges and allegations of vote rigging and alteration of the voter list.
The candidates sat at the main table to watch the drama unfold as voting was suspended at intervals to address the concerns of some of the delegates from the 12 provinces that make up the MDC-T structures.
Mwonzora was accused by his rivals of attempting to manipulate the system by transporting delegates from Manicaland to participate in the polls when they were not part of party structures in 2014 or on the supplemental voter list agreed upon by all contestants.
“Let the people vote, Bulawayo has voted why do you want to stop voting in Manicaland? There is a council resolution and we should use it to get people to vote, why are you trying to stop voting? “replied Mr. Mwonzora.
However, Dr. Khupe would not say anything and told Mr. Mwonzora to his face that he was trying to manipulate the system and use aliens to vote.
You are manipulating. You cannot do that. We will not allow the people to steal the elections. They must stop the voting process. The voter list has been altered. People who are not on the voters list should not be in here. We are not going to allow it, never, ”he said as he hit the table.
Between Dr. Khupe and Mr. Mwonzora sat the other two contestants, Mr. Komichi and Ing Mudzuri, who also expressed concern about the secretary-general’s alleged attempts to include people on the electoral roll when they were not. .
As tempers flared, Mr. Shakespeare Mukoyi, who acted as the coordinator of the entire congress, stepped in and tried to save the day.
He blamed certain candidates for interfering in the electoral process.
Meanwhile, there were fistfights as emotions flared among the candidates’ officers, as well as among security loyalists having a torrid time driving off the angry crowd.
