MDC vice chairperson Tendai Biti and the co-vice president Welshman Ncube are eligible to stand for election at the party’s forthcoming Congress slated for May.
Some reports have claimed the duo cannot contest for any post since they have not been members of the MDC for the last five years.
However, MDC Alliance spokesperson Jacob Mafume says that the coming together of the MDC led by Chamisa and the People’s Democratic Party led by Biti is like a company merger. Said Mafume:
It sets a dangerous precedence to call this a waiver. It is not. This is a situation in which different parties have merged.
Just as no one from the MDC has been told that their membership will start now or after Congress, the same applies to former members of the People’s Democratic Party.
This is like a company merger and one cannot wake up and claim that workers coming from another subsidiary have had their years of service wiped away.
The history of the people joining the MDC has been considered and there is no need to amend even the Congress template.