MDC votes to boycott senate

MDC votes to boycott senate

• Melusi Nyathi: MDC must reconnect with people

• Mugabe sets November 26 Senate poll date

• Tsvangirai plays down rift with Ncube

• Oscar Nkala: MDC should snub senate

• Mugabe calls senate poll for November, MDC undecided

• Msekiwa Makwanya: the MDC, the senate and boycott politics

• Morgan Tsvangirai: The senate, what's in it for the people?

• Grace Kwinjeh: No to senate elections!

• Kwinjeh attacks MDC senate poll participation

• MDC to contest for senate seats

• Prof Jonathan Moyo: New amendments should face battle royal

• New constitutional moves 'will not fly'

• Chinamasa slammed over 'exit visa' threat

• Innocent C Sithole: The MDC and culture of prevarication

• MDC wants to give senate a miss

• Prof Welshman Ncube: Constitutional reforms recipe for disaster

• Zim denies plot to curtail critics' travel

• Dr Alex Magaisa: Constitution without Constitutionalism

• Lucas Nkomo: The right to revolt against tyranny

• Tawanda Hove: Constitutional reforms and MDC mess

• US says Zim moves 'a sad step backwards'

• Rights groups condemn constitutional moves

• Paul Themba Nyathi: Dark day for democracy

• Parliament passes amendment bill

• Prof Jonathan Moyo: Constitutional madness will not save Zanu PF

• MDC ambush Zanu PF with draft constitution

• Zim tables bill to amend constitution

• Lawyers condemn constitutional amendment

• Aspiring Zanu PF senator dies of poisoning

• Alex Magaisa: Constitutional amendment spells doom for economy

• Chinamasa admits Zanu PF has no two thirds

• Zimbabwe senate will last only 5 years

• Moyo fights constitutional amendment

• Zanu PF accelerates Senate plans

• Mugabe appoints nephew to new Cabinet

• Mugabe to extend term

• Mugabe vows to rule for a century

By Stella Mapenzauswa and Cris Chinaka

ZIMBABWE opposition party said on Wednesday it would boycott elections next month for a new Senate that critics say is intended to bolster President Robert Mugabe and his ruling party's grip on power.

"The (party) council resolved to stay out of the ZANU-PF Senate project," Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai told a news conference.

The MDC says Mugabe's ZANU-PF has used rigging and violence to avoid defeat in parliamentary and presidential elections in the last five years in the face of a deepening economic crisis widely blamed on government mismanagement.

Mugabe, who denies charges of election rigging, used ZANU-PF's existing two-thirds majority in parliament to push through constitutional amendments in August, including provision for the 66-seat senate.

Fifty senators will be elected while 10 seats are reserved for chiefs traditionally loyal to the ruling party and the remainder for presidential appointees.

Tsvangirai said the MDC's national council had been split 50:50 ( 33 for participation, 31 against and 2 spoilt votes) on whether to contest the polls, and that he used his casting vote in favour of a boycott.

Local media have reported a split within the MDC over the issue, with Tsvangirai backing a boycott, and another faction wanting to contest the polls to avoid increasing ZANU-PF's dominance in political affairs.

Tsvangirai, with backing from leaders of the MDC's youth and women's leagues, told a rally in Harare at the weekend that he opposed participating in the polls because conditions still did not exist for a fair vote.

The MDC contested parliamentary elections in March but, along with some Western governments, said they were not fair.

Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, accuses the MDC of being a puppet of the former colonial power Britain, which he says has led a drive to sabotage Zimbabwe's economy over his government's seizure of white-owned commercial farms for blacks.

The International Monetary Fund says Zimbabwe is the world's fastest-shrinking economy, facing triple-digit inflation, soaring unemployment and shortages of fuel, foreign currency and food.

Mugabe's critics say his policies, including land seizures, are responsible - Reuters
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