ANOTHER MDC official from Gokwe has filed an urgent chamber application to stop party leader Nelson Chamisa from holding an elective congress that is due to start tomorrow in Gweru.<\/p>\n
Maureen Tawengwa, who was a secretary for Gokwe Sesame under the 2014 structure, yesterday filed a High Court application through her lawyer, Ashel Mutungura, seeking an order to stop the MDC congress from going ahead.<\/p>\n
The application comes after High Court judge Justice Edith Mushore early this month ruled as illegal the way Chamisa and co-vice-president Elias Mudzuri were appointed by the opposition party\u2019s late founding leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.<\/p>\n
Justice Mushore ordered the party to hold an extraordinary congress to choose an interim leader who will lead the party to an elective congress to choose a substantive president in a case brought by another Gokwe Sesame district party member, Elias Mashavira.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can confirm the application has been filed with the High Court in Harare. It is an urgent application to interdict Nelson Chamisa from proceeding with the congress,\u201d Mutungura said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are several reasons; one being that the structures going to the congress are illegal. The 2014 structures are still in office and their term expires in October and new structures can only be in place after the old ones are dissolved.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other reasons include alleged fraud in the way the provincial congresses were held, with several irregularities that reportedly disenfranchised other members.<\/p>\n
Irregularities cited were ballot staffing and conducting the congresses in the middle of the night, apart from using party members \u201cwho are conflicted\u201d to run the polls.<\/p>\n
Tawengwa also cited the nomination of alleged non-members, among them Tendai Biti, Settlement Chikwinya and Jacob Mafume.<\/p>\n
She alleged that the cited members broke away from the main MDC in 2014 and formed their own party, the People\u2019s Democratic Party.<\/p>\n
Tawengwa said article 5.5.2 of the party\u2019s constitution highlighted that people who desert the party should go through probation before they are considered for nomination, which she
\nsaid did not happen.<\/p>\n
Chamisa\u2019s lawyer, Advocate Thabani Mpofu, said he was yet to be served with the interdict papers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know anything about the application. I have not seen any papers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Despite indicating that he would appeal against the Justice Mushore judgment, Chamisa is yet to do so.<\/p>\n
The ruling, however, did not explicitly bar the MDC from holding the congress, which starts tomorrow with the election of youths and women\u2019s assembly members for the main organs.<\/p>\n
The youthful leader has been accusing Zanu PF of trying to frustrate the party\u2019s processes, and vowed he would not be deterred from holding the first congress after Tsvangirai\u2019s death in February last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ANOTHER MDC official from Gokwe has filed an urgent chamber application to stop party leader Nelson Chamisa from holding an elective congress that is due to start tomorrow in Gweru. Maureen Tawengwa, who was a secretary for Gokwe Sesame under the 2014 structure, yesterday filed a High Court application through her lawyer, Ashel Mutungura, seeking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":1331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,12],"tags":[113,88,566,120],"class_list":{"0":"post-9176","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-head-lines","9":"category-policy","10":"tag-chamisa","11":"tag-mdc","12":"tag-mpofu","13":"tag-parties"},"yoast_head":"\n