Mbizo Constituency legislative seat remains in limbo as the MDC alliance formations are divided over prospective candidates for both parliamentary and council elections set for this year despite the fact that People’s Democratic Party (PDP) under former Finance Minister Tendai Biti, a principal to the alliance has been mandated to field their parliamentary candidate in the Constituency.
Division in the constituency surfaced over the proposed candidature of the former MDC-T legislator for Mbizo Settlement Chikwinya with some formations arguing that the decision to field Chikwinya is against the will of the people and is contrary to democratic values and principles.
Chikwinya was expelled from the MDC-T in 2014 after he crossed the floor to join a breakaway faction led by Biti and was subsequently recalled from Parliament after the MDC-T wrote to the Speaker of Parliament Jacob Mudenda.
In an interview with this publication Chikwinya who is the aspiring candidate for Mbizo constituency parliamentary seat could not deny the wrangling but insisted that there were some pockets of resistance within the MDC Alliance.
He said that the Mbizo Constituency parliamentary seat was allocated to PDP by the principal negotiators to the alliance, which comprises of MDC-T, MDC-N, Transform Zimbabwe, PDP, Zanu Ndonga, ZIM-PF, and one Guchuchu,
Chikwinya said, by virtue of that, PDP will also field council candidates in all wards except where they are sitting councillors that also form part of the Alliance.
Chikwinya added that PDP will field candidates in wards 3,5 and 11.
However, the MDC-T Midlands province deputy secretary for Information and Publicity Somerai dismissed Chikwinya’s assertion stating that the MDC Alliance was yet to announce its candidate for Mbizo constituency, reffering to the meeting that was chaired by the MDC-T’s Morgan Komichi who chairs the MDC Alliance National Coordinating Committee in Mbizo.
