Douglas Mwonzora wins MDC-T Presidency in ‘flawed’ extraordinary congress

HARARE – Douglas Mwonzora has been declared the winner of the Extraordinary MDC-T Congress, albeit under controversial circumstances, as other candidates such as incumbent President Thokozani Khupe, Elias Mudzuri and Morgen Komichi called the event a kangaroo court.

At the Electoral Congress, Mwonzora won the election by 883 votes against 118 for Khupe, Elias Mudzuri came a distant third with 14 votes, followed by Komichi who managed only 9 votes.

The Congress was not without controversy over the mysterious electoral list, which was challenged by Khupe before taking the podium to announce the cancellation of the Congress and the suspension of Mwonzora.

It was this attitude that angered HICC delegates, who spat at Khupe with all sorts of explicit words as she stormed out of the auditorium before receiving “the slap of her life” from a unknown.

However, MDC-T President-elect Mwonzora insisted that the Extraordinary Congress was credible and hoped to work with losing candidates in the future.

“When everyone has calmed down, we will come together as one family, I want to make it clear that the three leaders are part of my leadership plan,” he said.

“I have great respect for Dr Thokozani Khupe, Mudzuri and Komichi for the work they did for the party during the tenure of the late Morgan Tsvangirai and afterwards.”

“It was a competition, not a fight. The fact that we were in the same race; the fact that one outperformed the others does not make us better members of the MDC-T than the others.

It remains to be seen whether Khupe will swallow his pride and agree to work with Mwonzora, or if the movement is headed for another split.