HARARE West legislator Jessie Majome has accused the MDC-T leadership of betrayal, a day after her shock withdrawal from the opposition party’s primary elections.
BY NKULULEKO SIBANDA
In an exclusive interview with The Standard last night, Majome said she felt unwanted after the party insisted she goes through primary elections against Joana Mamombe despite assurances that her seat was safe.
“I decided to withdraw from the party’s primaries because the situation was no longer a healthy one for me,” she said.
“There are things that have happened in the run-up to the primaries that send a very clear message that the agenda is to have you out of party circles.
“Of late, there has been a lot of malice, discrimination and insults that I have been subjected to by party officials, mostly through social media.
“All this shows and tells me I am no longer a wanted commodity in the party.”
Majome, a lawyer by profession, said the MDC-T leadership, including the party‘s president Nelson Chamisa had assured her that there won’t be primary elections in her constituency.
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She said the party had also been biased in the run-up to the primaries, an indication that some officials wanted to give Mamombe an unfair advantage.
“I know and I am sure that my fellow contestant had been given the access to the information on who would vote while I wasn’t,” Majome said.
“How do people then expect you to go out and convince those that will vote for you when you do not know who will be voting?”
The MDC founder member charged that the party had ignored its own rules in organising the primaries.
“I am unhappy that there was a complete disregard of the rules that we were told would govern the conduct of the primaries,” she said.
“We were told that, for starters, one had to have been a member of the party for the last five years to be able to contest in these primaries.
“My opposite number is hardly five years in the party.
“She even gave a fake address to justify her candidature when all and sundry know she is not a resident of the constituency and you have the party accepting that candidature. I will not take such things lying down.”
She said several sitting MPs had an agreement with the party leadership that they will not go through primaries.
“We were assured by the party, and even the new president, Nelson Chamisa, that our seats would be safe,” she said.
“The agreement was that we were supposed to expend our energies as a party in venturing into territories that had not been ventured into.”
Majome has been a member of the MDC-T since the party was formed in 1999.
