The MDC-T has reiterated it is impossible to hold elections this year without a roadmap, but has nonetheless started rolling up its sleeves in the event President Robert Mugabe has his way.
The party has scheduled an intensive programme of election campaign rallies to begin next week.
The first rally is to be held in Harare on June 5 and would be addressed by party leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
The MDC-T says the objective of the rallies is nothing more than assessing the state of the party at grassroots level.
The party has declared it will not take part in polls without a clear election roadmap and a new constitution.
“From next week, the fired-up, fully inspired team led by President Tsvangirai reconnects with the people in a series of intense consultations and meetings to assess existing trends at the grassroots, exchange ideas, and to take direct advice and instructions on how to tackle stubborn Zanu PF stains and residual dark spots still lurking in isolated rural areas,” the MDC-T said in a statement.
Tsvangirai’s party claims by the time Zimbabwe goes for elections, the former ruling party would have collapsed.
“By the time we have the next election, and certainly not in 2011, Zanu PF would be so torn, fractured and weak that Zimbabwe would see it as a mere memoir the people would wish to forget,” the former opposition party declared.
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“The picture could be worse if (President) Mugabe remains the party leader given his rising inability to contain internal dissent for obvious reasons.
“The party’s fortunes would be doubly disastrous if a new factional leader replaces Mugabe before then as the party faithful would scatter like inmates in a lunatic asylum.
“With a wobbly opposition like Zanu PF, now plagued by health and leadership squabbles; factional fights; policy confusion over Zimbabwe’s future; and incoherent messages to a nation keen to heal itself and start afresh, the new MDC leadership vowed to exert the people’s final weight and finish off the transition in triumph,” the statement reads.
Political analyst Charles Mangongera said although the MDC-T was in government, Zanu PF was still controlling the levers of power hence the need for the MDC-T to stay prepared for all eventualities.
“They have to be prepared for anything. Zanu PF can call for elections and the MDC-T in this case is better advised to be on the ground,” he said.
“As a political party there is need to maintain presence on the ground and maintain relevance to the electorate,” he said.
Zanu PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo said he would not comment on what he described as the MDC-T’s “trivial issues”.
