Zimbabwe opposition parties unite to kick out Mugabe in 2018 polls

Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Saturday reunited with his former allies to agree a pre-election pact to challenge President Robert Mugabe’s near four-decade hold on power at the polls next year.

Mugabe, 93, has ruled the former British colony since independence in 1980.

Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has been the main threat to Mugabe since its formation in 1999 but has been weakened by splits, in 2005 and 2014, mainly over strategy.

We are saying today, this convergence is not just about political parties. It is to stop fragmentation. Mugabe has no excuse to rig if we are united.

On Saturday, Welshman Ncube, who led a break-away MDC faction in 2004 and Tendai Biti, who left the main opposition in 2014, signed a pact that would see them fielding parliamentary candidates in some constituencies under the MDC Alliance banner and would support Tsvangirai’s fourth bid for the presidency.

Ncube and Biti are founding MDC members who both held the position of secretary general and served as cabinet ministers in a unity government with Mugabe’s ZANU-PF until a crushing defeat in the 2013 election.