HARARE – Jacob Mudenda was elected Speaker of Parliament unopposed on Friday after a vote was called without MPs from the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC).
Mudenda’s deputy in the last parliament, Tsitsi Gezi, was also retained uncontested after the vote just before 10AM.
CCC MPs did not arrive at the new parliament building in Mt Hampden until 11AM. Mudenda and Gezi were then declared duly elected unopposed to cheers from Zanu PF MPs.
CCC MP Amos Chibaya said: “We spoke to the Clerk of Parliament yesterday (Thursday) and advised him that we will have a party caucus on Friday morning to choose our candidates for Speaker, Deputy Speaker, Senate president and deputy senate president and we agreed the vote will start at 11AM.
“Imagine our surprise when we turn up here and they have already done the process for Speaker of Parliament.”
CCC MPs temporarily stopped business in parliament as they broke into song in the chamber, denouncing what had just happened.
The party, with its 103 MPs to Zanu PF’s 176, was unlikely to win anyway. The party had proposed Bulawayo North MP Minenhle Gumede for the role of Speaker of Parliament, and Felix Magalela Mafa for Senate president.
The vote in the Senate, which was conducted in the afternoon, did proceed with Mabel Chinomona returning to the top seat as Zanu PF flexed its majority. Michael Reuben Nyambuya, a retired general, will reprise his role as Chinomona’s deputy.
