MDC vice president Elias Mudzuri has said he will not be contesting for any post at the upcoming congress citing irregularities in the party’s electoral processes.
This comes after the opposition party’s National Council nominated party leader Douglas Mwonzora as the sole presidential candidate at the party’s 5th Ordinary Congress set for 18 December this year.
In a leaked WhatsApp conversation, Mudzuri said he does not agree with the whole process and will only change his stance if the process becomes transparent and democratic. He said:
Thank you to all members of the MDC family who have expressed their wish that I stand for re-election as second Vice President of the party at the coming 5th congress.
Please take note that I will not submit myself for that election for any position. I will however remain a committed card-carrying member of the party.
I am not in agreement with the process so I stand conflicted to vie for any position until and unless the process becomes transparent and democratic including knowledge of the colligate from ward to province.
Contacted for comment to TellZim News, Mudzuri confirmed the development. He said:
I cannot be nominated by the elite members of the party, nominations should start at the grassroots level.
We are 22 years as a party and that is what we have been doing all along.
I cannot be nominated by my friends, that is not what we do as a party.
He said will not leave the party but will remain a card-carrying and loyal member of the party. Said Mudzuri:
I am ashamed of what is happening right now but I cannot run away from the party, I have talked to them and I will continue to talk to them but if they don’t listen, I will remain a card-carrying member as I cannot be part of the leadership which fails to observe the democratic tenets of the party.
I can be nominated for any position in the party and have at some point assumed the leadership of the party as you know when Mr (Morgan) Tsvangirai died, he left me in charge of the party.