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Tsvangirai in Parliament dilemma

11 years ago | 10251 Views
The MDC led by former Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is definitely caught between a rock and a hard place as it slowly absorbs its catastrophic defeat in the just ended harmonised elections.

The MDC-T is in a dilemma similar to the one it failed to handle almost a decade ago which led to the acrimonious split which has haunted to this date and contributed to its political demise.

Realising that it was heading for a crushing defeat in the just ended general election, the MDC-T declared the polls "null and void", alleging massive but as yet unproven vote rigging.

The party has since announced that it would be taking the election battle to court this Friday.

In its "infinite wisdom", the MDC-T also went proclaimed that its 49 elected Parliamentarians would boycott Parliament and other public institutions, a decision which is threatening the fabric of the party as the affected individuals seem the least prepared to comply with it.

If the Eight Parliament of Zimbabwe comes into session as anticipated at the end of this month, the MDC-T therefore hasthree weeks in which to make a unanimous decision on whether or not it will participate in parliament.

Not that a decision not to participate will affect the business of the august house in which Zanu PF has more than a two-thirds majority.

Clerk of Parliament Austin Zvoma has already said that Parliament business would go on with or without the MDC.

Parliament requires a quorum of at least 25 members to get on with its business and Zanu PF has 160 members, making the MDCs presence or absence insignificant.

But in the event that the MDC-T legislators decide to ignore their party and take part in Eight Parliament of Zimbabwe, it would be find itself in a familiar quandary.

In terms of Parliamentary rules and procedures, the political parties have the power to disown members who go against their rules and regulations by writing to the Speaker of House of Assembly to have such members expelled from Parliament.

In the Seventh Parliament of Zimbabwe, this happened to five members from the Welshman Ncube led MDC, who were chucked out of Parliament after the party wrote to the Speaker for their ejection.

But the big question is whether or not the MDC-T can afford to disown its Parliamentarians who have at least kept its number of Parliament seats a bit respectful.

With only 49 seats, can the now opposition party afford any further loses?

With its house already on burning, can the MDC-T try to douse it with more fire?

On the other hand if the MDC-T legislators decide to heed the call to boycott Parliament, they still will not be off the hook as the institution has its own procedures to deal with those who absent themselves for long periods.

The MDC-T will have to handle the issue delicately lest it further splits and throws itself into political oblivion.

This article was written by Clarkson Mambo and was published by The New Ziana
1 Malema
Tags: Tsvangirai

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Anonymous user 11 years
one can tell its new ziana writting here, they just like zbc..
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