Chamisa is unchallengeable, reveals Mangoma

Published: 13 June 2018

Renewal Democrats of Zimbabwe (RDZ) leader Elton Mangoma has admitted that irreconcilable differences with the MDC Alliance led to the collapse of talks to form a broader coalition, NewZimbabwe.com reported.

"We have been talking with the MDC Alliance and it became patently clear that all they wanted was an endorsement of Nelson Chamisa," Mangoma said in an interview.

The former cabinet minister in the former inclusive government said opposition parties must not only be obsessed with removing Zanu-PF from power but also proffer solutions to the country's problems.

He said the MDC Alliance was negotiating in bad faith as it subjected other parties to contest for both council and parliamentary candidates and not contest the presidential candidate.

"The alliance only wanted to endorse Chamisa as opposed to actually try and solve this country's problems and to be able to see that there is merit in ensuring that we field one candidate against Zanu-PF from the councillors to the MPs and to the presidential candidate," the RDZ leader said.

He said his coalition, the Coalition for Democrats (CODE), pulled out after failing to reach a common ground with MDC Alliance on why the presidential post was not being contested.

"We just couldn't reconcile it because they wanted us to contest each other at the parliamentary level and council level not at the presidential level. Yet at these levels there is no run off systems and yet there is no second chance whereas with the president there is clearly a second chance so we just couldn't agree," said Mangoma.

He said the country must not replace Zanu-PF rule with another dictatorship.

"CODE is very clear about what needs to be done; it is to provide solutions to the country's problems and not replace Zanu-PF with exactly another system of people who simply want to say it's our turn to eat on the feeding trough and also to be able not to create another dictator," he said.
- newzimbabwe

Tags: Chamisa,