Maravi

(TALKZIMBABWE) $1 campaign, MDC-T desperate for election funds

$1 campaign, MDC-T desperate for election funds
By: Samantha Chidzero
Posted: Friday, April 8, 2011 4:44 am

THE MDC-T party led by Morgan Tsvangirai is agitating for a delay in the general elections as it has no funds to finance a nationwide election campaign across the country, it has emerged. The party has been on a regional offensive to try a delay the plebiscite to buy time to raise funds.

Tsvangirai has also made various attempts at delaying the election by claiming that there is no "existence of electoral conditions that will not produce another contested outcome" and that the decision to hold elections is made by the prime minister and the president.

Ironically, Tsvangirai has also made claims that the inclusive Government is not functional.

He recently commented: "The inclusive Government has demonstrated over the past six months that it is dysfunctional that I can concede."

Last month Tsvangirai visited regional leaders in the run up to the Sadc Troika meeting in Livingstone (Zambia) and told them about unsubstantiated claims of political violence in Zimbabwe.

Tsvangirai has not brought up the issue in Cabinet meetings he attends weekly which are chaired by President Robert Mugabe.

Last month President Mugabe convened a Special Cabinet meeting in which he urged the MDC-T to present to him with a detailed report of all cases of Zanu-PF violence against MDC-T members. The party failed to present such a report or cite specific cases of politically motivated violence.

The party’s funding has dwindled as their allies in the west are no longer able to fund them at the scale they did in previous election periods as they are facing problems in their own countries.

Portugal’s government resigned after parliament rejected austerity measures. There are also problems in Ireland, Greece and Spain.

Britain's economic growth will lag behind five of the G7 countries in the second quarter of this year, only outperforming disaster-struck Japan, according to a report from influential western think-tank OECD.

Despite being illegal under the Political Parties Finance Act 1992 where there is no provision for the financing of political parties in Zimbabwe, the MDC-T has enjoyed huge funding from the US and Britain and other western countries.

The Act provides for state funding of political parties which hold 15 seats in Parliament or more.

The MDC-T has, however, resorted to other “desperate means” to raise funds, including the launching of an anti Zanu-PF website, which will be run by treasurer general, Roy Bennett. Bennett is calling for $1 donations to the MDC-T towards the next elections.

Bennett has also been been given a new role by the MDC-T under the so-called “global advocacy programme”, in which he will engage the US and EU ‘directly’ to raise funds.

Bennett recently revealed that he had to leave Zimbabwe as that would have left the MDC-T unable to raise funds for the elections.

He told a pirate radio station that “... sitting in prison in Zimbabwe ... will be of no use to anybody. I decided to remain in exile in South Africa.”

He added that the MDC-T party “held a workshop in South Africa where it was decided that I would be based in the UK where I would set up a ‘global advocacy programme’ ... to assist in raising funds.”

Bennett also revealed that the MDC-T party will hold a “Free Zimbabwe” concert in South Africa to raise funds “towards the next elections”.

Bennett’s revelations will put to rest MDC-T claims that it raises its funds for election campaigns via efforts within Zimbabwe.

The party has since revived its deeply divided UK and Ireland Province which had been in hibernation for the last two years, in order to raise funds for the election period. The MDC-T’s National Chairman, Lovemore Moyo and Women's Assembly chairperson, Theresa Makone, were deployed to oversee the revival of UK structures in Leeds on Saturday April 2 2011.

MDC-T spokesman Nelson Chamisa is on record saying that their election campaigns are financed via membership fees and other in-country fundraising efforts.

Labels: 2011 ELECTIONS (ZIMBABWE), CAMPAIGN FINANCE, MDC, MORGAN TSVANGIRAI

posted by MrK @ 4:33 AM