ZIMBABWE: Zimbabwe's main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), appears to be teetering on the brink of collapse due to infighting over the forthcoming senate elections.
The current crisis hanging over the party began recently when MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai urged party members to boycott participation in the election of representatives to the newly-formed senate.
He maintained the election process would be rigged in favour of President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party, and that spending large sums of money on the creation of an upper house was wasteful considering the economic crisis gripping the southern African country.
When the party's national council voted on Mr Tsvangirai's proposal to boycott the November 26th poll it was defeated by 33 to 31, with many of its senior members voting to participate in the electoral process. MDC secretary general Welshman Ncube, one of the senior members to oppose the boycott proposal, indicated that those who decided to participate in the forthcoming election were doing so to avoid yielding more political space to Mr Mugabe.
Despite the proposal's defeat, efforts to resolve the situation between the two factions have been ongoing. However, last ditch talks at the weekend appear to have called into question the future of the only opposition party in the country, as neither group would alter its stance.
Any capitulation within the MDC as a movement would effectively mean that politically, Zimbabwe would become a one-party state under the control of Mr Mugabe.
Following the meeting, Mr Tsvangirai's spokesperson William Bango reportedly told journalists that his boss remained unmoved on his position that the MDC should boycott the November poll. "The president's position on the senate election remains unchanged. He maintains that the MDC should stay out of the polls."
However, Mr Ncube's deputy Gift Chimanikire insisted the MDC would stick to the national council's majority decision to take part in the election.
The MDC was formed in 1999 by a number of diverse groups desperate to legitimately oppose Mr Mugabe's regime, which had started to evict white farmers from their farms.
In the six years since its inception the MDC has been the one constant ray of hope for the millions of Zimbabweans at odds with Mr Mugabe's dictatorial regime. In June 2000, the party won 57 of 120 contested parliamentary seats despite supporters being murdered, assaulted, tortured, raped or abducted.
Mr Tsvangirai came close again in the 2002 presidential election when he took 42 per cent of the vote. He also alleged that election had been rigged.
However, the party has experienced increasing infighting since the parliamentary election last March, which resulted in the MDC losing 15 of the seats it won in 2000. The dispute has also taken on an ethnic dimension. Mr Tsvangirai's position is strongly supported by the Shona ethnic group to which he belongs.
On the other hand, Mr Ncube, an Ndebele, has strong support in Zimbabwe's southwest, the traditional homeland of the Ndebele tribe.