Chamisa admits Khupe threat

Published: 20 June 2018

MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa has expressed fear that the break-away MDC-T led by Thokozani Khupe could snatch some parliamentary and council seats from his party in elections slated for July 30, NewZimbabwe reported.

The MDC Alliance is made up of seven political parties - MDC-T faction led by Chamisa, PDP (Tendai Biti), MDC (Professor Welshman Ncube), Transform Zimbabwe (Jacob Ngarivhume), Zanu Ndonga (Denford Musiyarira), Multi-Racial Christian Democratic Party (Mathias Guchutu) and Zimbabwe People First of Agrippa Mutambara.

However, the coalition has been weakened by the recent fallout between Chamisa and Khupe which led to a split.

The MDC Alliance has further been rocked by its own fissures after coalition partners have accuse Chamisa of trying to override them by imposing MDC-T loyalists on seats designated for them under the loose coalition arrangement.

Addressing hundreds of supporters in Victoria Falls on Sunday, Chamisa, who is the Alliance's presidential candidate, indicated that he was having sleepless nights over the issues.

While referring to Khupe as a girl, Chamisa said he had decided to divert his attention from the court case between his party and Khupe's faction over ownership of name and logo to concentrate on campaigns for the upcoming elections.

Khupe registered her party as MDC-T at the Nomination Court last week while Chamisa and his party have settled for the name MDC Alliance.

"Before I leave, I should tell you about one girl (Khupe) who failed to agree with us. We went to court but when we saw that the referee was dining with her, we decided that we should change our party slogan.

"Our new logo is a hand with the face of your president (Chamisa)," he said.

Chamisa told his supporters that Khupe had registered her party as MDC-T to try and steal votes from his party.

"We are still dealing with her. We're not worried about the presidential election because she won't win but we are worried about the MPs and councilors; she might steal our votes," said Chamisa.

Khupe and her party have lined up 112 parliamentary candidates for elections next month.
- newzimbabwe