Tough road for MDC to election as Morgan Tsvangirai mulls quitting
Harare — If Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai were to stand down — as he has hinted — the party he founded would face immediate instability and could even split, handing a gift to new President Emmerson Mnangagwa in an election in 2018. The most visible opposition figure in the country since independence from Britain in 1980, Tsvangirai said on Monday it was time for the older generation to make way for younger leaders in the party. Mnangagwa rose to power in November after Robert Mugabe stood down following a de facto coup, ending a 37-year reign marked by economic mismanagement, corruption and vote rigging allegations. Investors and Western governments who cheered the end of Mugabe’s rule will be closely watching the election for evidence that Mnangagwa can run a free and fair vote and turn a new page in Zimbabwe’s history. It was expected that Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) would pose a robust challenge to Mnangagwa’s governing Zanu-PF. But that pr...
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