Senate debate: the arguments you never heard

Senate debate: the arguments you never heard

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• D Muleya: MDC goes down, fighting itself!

• Msekiwa Makwanya: Rank hypocrisy in MDC senate debate

• Nigeria, Ghana reject funding MDC

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• Bekithemba Mhlanga: Label food, not people

• Nixon Mao: Our darkest day

• Tsvangirai threatens 'political action'

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• Nigeria, Ghana sucked into MDC crisis

• Prof J Moyo: 'All Zanu PF want is geriatrics to be senators'

• Stanford Mukasa: Rejoinder to PT Nyathi

• Bloody Monday for MDC

• Paul T Nyathi: Tribal slurs easy to make, but extremely dangerous

• Brilliant Mhlanga: MDC no longer an alternative

• Patrick Mlambo: Tsvangirai has lost plot

• Nyathi hits back at Tsvangirai bribery claims

• B Mhlanga: Tsvangirai fell for Zanu PF bait

• Alex Magaisa: Handling a fledging democracy

• Elliot Pfebve: Tsvangirai & Mugabe, larvae and butterfly scenario

• MDC moves to impeach Tsvangirai

• Sibanda: Tsvangirai in breach of constitution

• Tsvangirai accuses officials of vote-buying

• Itai Zimunya: MDC split good for Zimbabwe

• Tsvangirai bid to heal rifts

• Chenjerai Hove: The MDC and a very Zimbabwean disease

• Tsvangirai must 'come to terms' - Nyathi

• M Makwanya: Lessons in democratic process

• Heads must roll

• MDC splits widen after senate vote

• Tsvangirai: We are out

• Nyathi: We are in

• MDC to boycott senate - Tsvangirai

By Trudy Stevenson, MP

MANY members of both the party (MDC) and the general public have indicated that they have heard no arguments for participation in the Senate election, or have only heard the argument "Keep them out".

In the interests of democracy and free access to information, I print below a brief summary of the paper presented by the MDC Legal Committee to the National Executive Committee on Friday 16 September which led to the resolution to consult the party
structures.

It is most unfortunate that the "consultation" was never properly
carried out, in that the so-called consultative meetings were actually an overt effort at indoctrination of the "No to Senate" view, and that the other side of the story never saw the light of day since the beginning of this debate.

All structures should have been informed of all the arguments both for and against participation before making their decision. In view of the fact that few, if any at all, were made so aware, readers should consider the implications of this state of affairs in considering the arguments for and against, and the bigger picture of the divide within our party MDC.

Readers should also be assured that our beloved party MDC will survive all divisions, factions, etc. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts!
........................................................

24 September 2005

A number of requests have been made for a list of all the arguments both for and against MDC's participation in the Senate election, in view of extensive airing of arguments against participation, but none in favour.

I list below the main arguments both for and against, which it was
agreed would be stated very clearly at all levels of the party in this debate.
.....................................................................................................................
Senate election participation debate – Arguments for and against

Arguments against participation

- Participation will be hypocritical
- Participation will legitimise the Senate and the process of amending the Constitution
- Participation will not remove Mugabe
- Participation will be expensive and drain the party of resources
- Participation will draw the party's attention away from holding Congress

Arguments for participation

- Participation will maintain the MDC's stongholds
- Non-participation will deny the people the right to keep out Zanu PF
- Winning more than one-third of the seats in Senate will prevent
Zanu PF from unilaterally amending the Constitution
- Non-participation may create in the minds of the electorate the notion that the MDC has capitulated
- Participation will exacerbate the divisions within Zanu PF
- Participation will keep MDC structures focused on fighting Zanu PF
- Participation could enable the MDC to place key people in Parliament
_______________
T Stevenson
Secretary for Policy and Research
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