NELSON Chamisa was Thursday elected new MDC-T leader for the next 12 months at a meeting not attended by leadership rivals and party vice presidents Elias Mudzuri and Thokozani Khupe.
The urgent national executive council (NEC) meeting at the MDC-T’s Harare headquarters was called after party leader Morgan Tsvangirai succumbed to colon cancer in South Africa Wednesday.
Chamisa, Khupe and Mudzuri had rowed bitterly over the acting leader post as Tsvangirai was hospitalised in South Africa in the last days of a two-year cancer fight.
Following his passing, Mudziru used social media to call his own NEC meeting at Tsvangirai’s Highlands home in the capital.
It could not be immediately established which of the top party leadership attended the rival meetings but Chamisa’s gathering at Harvest House was backed by thousands of party supporters paying tribute to their fallen leader.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Chamisa said he was not aware of Mudzuri’s whereabouts.
“The reason why he (Mudzuri) is not here can best be answered by him, but he was aware of this meeting. Madam Khupe, I am told that she is on her way from Bulawayo and is expected anytime soon,” he said.
Khupe was elected vice president at the party’s congress in 2014 while Chamisa and Mudzuri were controversially co-deputy leaders appointed by Tsvangirai two years later in 2016.Advertisement