Losing Chamisa Says 'Not a Rebel', Declares MDC-T Loyalty
Chamisa also dismissed a news report by the Zanu PF-embedded Herald newspaper that he was considering pulling out of the MDC-T to form his own party, saying "revolutionaries don't quit."
WASHINGTON DC — Losing MDC-T candidate for Secretary-general Nelson Chamisa on Tuesday trashed reports he was mulling court action against his shock defeat by outgoing party spokesman Douglas Mwonzora, declaring “I am not a rebel.” Chamisa, who looked set to landing the coveted post ahead of last weekend’s elective Congress, lost to Mwonzora by more than 700 votes. He also dismissed a news report by the Zanu PF-embedded Herald newspaper that he was considering pulling out of the MDC-T to form his own party, saying "revolutionaries don't quit." “I believe in the MDC, I am a child of the MDC. I am a child of the revolution; I am a revolutionary. Revolutionaries don’t jump ship,” Chamisa told Studio 7 in his first post-Congress interview. His defeat stunned many who considered the race a homerun for the ambitious and eloquent lawmaker after he crushed Mwonzora in the nomination process. Chamisa’s after-defeat silence sparked conjecture as to his next political move, with some suggesting that he would challenge the outcome in court, a claim he vehemently rejected. “I will not take to a court issues that are supposed to be dealt with internally. I don’t belong to the politics of confusion and anarchy. I believe in domestic remedies. “I believe in internal politics being confined to internal corridors. I don’t believe that if I have any grievance, which I have not even expressed as of now, I would take it to outside jurisdiction other than the domestic jurisdiction within the party,” he added. The Kuwadzana East legislator would however, not say whether or not he had any complaints about the outcome of the balloting that his loyalists say may have been fixed. But his tone was that of an aggrieved candidate. “In fact, I’m going to issue a statement at the appropriate time on the issue of the process to do with Congress once I have conversed and discussed with my principal, the president and other leaders on the course forward,” he said.