Gambakwe Media Sources have revealed that Nelson Chamisa ‘s Faction of the MDC has began the process of recalling Douglas Mwonzora and Morgen Komichi.
This follows the decision by the two veteran MDC leaders to enthusiastically support the decision by the Supreme Court to roll back all actions taken by Morgan Tsvangirai when he appointed Nelson Chamisa and Elias Mudzuri as 2 additional Vice Presidents.
Speaking to Gambakwe Media on condition of anonymity, our sources said Parliament and senate will be seeking a legal opinion on the matter next week.
While Chamisa has been quiet on the matter, his technical advisor, Dr Tapiwa Shumba last week revealed that MDC MPs and Senators can not be called by MDC-T even after the Supreme Court ruling.
Writing on Facebook, Dr Shumba said:
The recall of MDC Alliance Mps and Councillors by the MDC-T is legally and procedurally impossible.
All the Mps and Councillors who contested under the MDC Alliance belong to the MDC Alliance, in total. There is no such a thing such as that there are Mps under the jurisdiction of some distinct political parties that don’t exist at ZEC or in Parliament.
Our electoral law does not provide for the system of coalitions or electoral pacts. No one can register a coalition to contest an election. ZEC only registers political parties. Which is the same reason why the MDC Alliance had to be a political party and not a coalition before they could register at ZEC.Â
Practically, it means that even if the political parties which integrated into the MDC Alliance had remained independent within a coalition arrangement, those parties would not be able to individually act on their deployees who have contested as members of the MDC Alliance except through the MDC Alliance leadership. i.e the MDC-T alone cannot recall a member of the Alliance. All they can do is to make a resolution and ask the Alliance to write to parliament recalling a deployee.
For example, there are only ANC Mps in the South African Parliament. Parliament doesn’t listen to COSATU or SACP because they all contest under the ANC. The SACP cannot recall Hon Blade Mzimande from Parliament. Only the ANC (coalition) leadership can do so. (Its unfortunate for the clarity of my example that they also happen to use the name of one of the coalition partners (ANC) which itself is a political party).
Indeed even the then Alliance coalition MOU was alert to this reality. Parliament has no business involving itself in electoral pacts that are not provided for under our law. In fact apart from the record at ZEC which culmimates into the Parliamentary register after election results, Parliament has no other means of identifying which of the many parties in a coalition, an MP belongs. Such just doesn’t exist.
Secondly, in other jurisdictions there is a parliamentary system called FLOOR-CROSSING where Mps are allowed to move with their seats from the political party they contested under to another party. The Zimbabwe Constitution abhors that system. The purpose of s129 (1) (k) and (l) of the Zimbabwe Constitution is to specifically prohibit floor-crossing.
Anyone who contested for a seat under the MDC Alliance but claims that they now belong to another party and relinquishes their membership of the Alliance floor-crosses and therefore offends the Constitution. It also follows that no Mp can claim to belong to two different political parties. In parliament, you cannot say I ran under the ANC but I am a SACP Mp. i.e. You cannot say I ran under the MDC Alliance but I am a PDP or MDC-T Mp. That’s just nonsense in the Parliamentary context.
For the entire electoral cycle, an MP must belong to the political Party he contested under. If you don’t belong to the MDC Alliance anymore, its you who has crossed the floor and you must recalled immediately. Again, this is deliberate under our Constitution to protect the electorate who elected members believing that they will carry the mandate and manifesto of the MDC Alliance they sold to them. This protection should be respected.
In essense and in truth only the MDC Alliance will have jurisdiction over Mps who ran under the MDC Alliance. You risk embarrassing yourself and any Speaker of Parliament who listens to you if you write to Parliament and say I am the MDC-T leader, I want to recall an MDC Alliance Mp. No parliament should entertain such a letter. i.e Currently, only the leadership of the MDC Alliance, through its Secretary Hon Chalton Hwende can legally, procedurally and officially converse with Parliament about MDC Alliance MPs.
Lastly, I am sorry but this is the reality of the coronaboys and any fly that follow their corpses to the grave.
Conclusion
It is clear that the Khuphe Faction and the Chamisa Faction can not co-exist and a winner take all situation will soon develop.
If Chamisa manages to recall Mwonzora and Komichi, he Wil have gained an upper hand and the Supreme Court ruling will collapse.
However, if he fails to recall the two, his position will become complicated.
