Maravi

(ZIMPAPERS) Rebels on the loose!

Rebels on the loose!
Sunday, 03 April 2011 12:08 Top Stories
By Munyaradzi Huni

ABOUT 22 rebel MDC-T legislators had hatched a plan to “fix” their party’s leadership by voting for Zanu-PF candidate Cde Simon Khaya Moyo in the race for the Speaker of the House of Assembly,... but only eight of them went on to vote for Cde Khaya Moyo as evidenced by the number of ballot papers that had distinct markings that the rebel group had agreed to use during the voting process, we can exclusively reveal.

These startling revelations mean that factually, at least eight Zanu-PF legislators among the 96 that were present on voting day prevented Cde Khaya Moyo from an assured victory as he would have garnered 104 votes with MDC-T candidate Mr Lovemore Moyo getting 95 votes through the seven votes from the smaller MDC faction.

Zanu-PF votes would have reached 105 had the party’s MP for Gokwe North, Cde Cephas Sindi, not thrown his vote away by absenting himself from the election even though he had attended a parliamentary committee meeting at Parliament the day before the election.
Mathematically it means that while eight MDC-T legislators voted for Cde Khaya Moyo, 10 Zanu-PF MPs prevented their candidate from winning as eight voted for Mr Lovemore Moyo, while one spoiled his/her ballot paper and the other absconded.

The Sunday Mail has it on good and verifiable authority that the rebel MDC-T MPs had come up with about three or so particularly distinct vote-markings that they were to use during the voting exercise.

However, a day before the election, the MDC-T leadership got wind of the rebel group’s plan and the party summoned some of the MPs and threatened them with unspecified action if they voted for the Zanu-PF aspirant.

In a bid to cover up the disgruntlement of these rebel MPs and to intimidate others in the party, the MDC-T hurriedly called a Press conference where it announced that Professor Jonathan Moyo was spearheading a campaign to bribe some of its members so that they could vote for Cde Khaya Moyo.

As a result, out of the 22 rebel MPs, eight completely chickened out of the plan, another eight voted for Cde Khaya Moyo while six voted for Mr Lovemore Moyo but still using the distinct markings that the group had come up with.

The six voted using the distinct markings following instructions from the MDC-T leadership that they should use the markings but vote for Mr Lovemore Moyo as the party wanted to be sure that the six had complied with their instructions.

A few days after the election, one of the rebel MPs secretly contacted this writer and a meeting with three other MDC-T legislators, including the co-ordinator of the plan by these rebel legislators, was organised at a venue on the outskirts of Harare. The rebel MPs, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they had come up with the plan because the MDC-T leadership “demands loyalty and gives nothing for it”.

“We have heard the talk that it’s 15 of us. Actually we were 22 and we came up with this plan to vote for Simon Khaya Moyo and mark our ballot papers in a particular way as assurance that none of us would sell out.

“Things did not go according to plan as our bosses got wind of the plan a few hours before the voting process. This scuttled things for us but eight of us refused to be intimidated and voted for Simon Khaya Moyo.

“About six of the guys were threatened and they were told to vote for Lovemore Moyo using the markings we had come up with. The bosses wanted them to use the markings so that they would check during counting that indeed they had voted for our party’s candidate.

“So there were 14 ballot papers with the distinct markings — eight that went to Simon Khaya Moyo and six that went to Lovemore Moyo,” said one of the MPs, adding that the other eight claimed that they voted for the Zanu-PF candidate but it was “difficult to ascertain the truth as they did not follow the pattern we had agreed.”

When this writer asked how this can be confirmed, the co-ordinator chipped in saying: “If anyone does not believe what we are saying, they should go and open the ballot boxes and they will see what we are talking about.

“If our Chief Whip, Innocent Gonese, is honest enough, he will confess that indeed he saw ballot papers that were uniquely marked during the counting process. Just open the ballot papers. The evidence is there and it will speak for itself.”

Soon after the elections for the Speaker, Clerk of Parliament Mr Austin Zvoma also said that during the verification and counting of the votes the election agents of the two contestants noticed that some ballot papers were marked in a unique way.
However, MDC-T spokesperson Mr Nelson Chamisa yesterday dismissed the allegations, saying “our people are allergic to Zanu-PF and they will never vote for Zanu-PF”.

Back to the rebel group, when this writer asked whether the group had not been bribed by Zanu-PF to tarnish the image of the MDC-T, the co-ordinator reacted angrily, saying: “This talk that we were bought is pure rubbish.

“You see, many of our leaders at the top there have been bribed by Zanu-PF and they now own several houses and vehicles. That’s a bribe to me. Some of us we are the founding members of this party (MDC) and hatitengwi netuma US$5 000 that they are rumbling about.”

The other MP accused the MDC-T leadership of “going to bed with a corpse” in reference to the decision by the Professor Ncube-led MDC to vote for Mr Lovemore Moyo.

“We don’t want to work with Ncube and his club. Those guys are useless. Why should our party of excellence unite with something that died in 2005?

“We can’t unite with a corpse just because of some white guy called (David) Coltart who had threatened to resign from that party if Ncube had refused to unite with us on the Speakership.
“Those guys should stop talking about uniting with us.

“They should be talking about coming back to join us,” said the MP.

The rebel MPs said they had serious grievances with their party’s leadership, adding that what happened in the House of Assembly is “Part One” but “Part Two” will come during the forthcoming MDC-T congress.

“It is unfortunate that some Zanu-PF MPs chose to vote for Lovemore Moyo, but honestly we still believe he is not the right candidate for that post.

“There are fundamental issues that should be solved in our party and anyone expecting a walk in the park during the coming congress will be shocked.
“How can we have a leadership that only takes care of itself?

“They demand loyalty from us and we get nothing in return.

“Enough is enough,” fumed the other MP.

Already, there have been reports of violence around the country as MDC-T leaders jostle to position themselves for posts ahead of the party’s forthcoming congress.
These new revelations are set to sting MDC-T leaders who all along have been giving the impression that all is well ahead of their congress, while for Zanu-PF the time has come for serious soul-searching.

Labels: 2011 ELECTIONS (ZIMBABWE), MDC, SIMON KHAYA MOYO, ZANU-PF

posted by MrK @ 2:42 AM