By Karen Nyeraurombo
MDC-T president Douglas Mwonzora has said his party and its legislators faced a genuine dilemma on whether to vote for or against Amendment Bill No.2 in the National Assembly.
The Bill received about 191 affirmative votes against 22 nos and among those who voted yes include those from MDC-T.
Addressing a press conference Mwonzora said it was difficult rejecting or accepting the Bill during the voting process and his MPs cannot be blamed.
“Our MPs were faced with a genuine dilemma and
so was MDC as a party.
“At the state that the Bill had reached it had to be voted for as a whole, in other words, it was not divisible. So, the choice that faced each individual MP was a choice between rejecting everything in the bill and therefore also in the process rejecting the women’s quota, the youth quota, the quota of women in the councils and devolution.
“Or accepting the entire bill and also in the process accept the running mate clause and the judges clause. It was a genuine dilemma that our MPs were faced with and therefore they voted using their conscience.
“Those who voted yes mostly were voting for the women’s quota, youth quota, quota for women in the councils and for devolution and those who voted no from our camp were voting no to
the running mate clause and the judges clause. For that reason the MP’s were faced with a genuine dilemma and we think that their behavior was reasonable.
“There is therefore no adverse action that the party is getting any of these MP’s. Some of the issues in this bill benefits the people of Zimbabwe.
“We want the advancement of women, we want women to take part in the political, economic and social affairs of our country and in order to do that, they must have reasonable power and they can get this through being in the legislature and it opens opportunities for them to be in the executive,’’ he said.
Mwonzora added that the women’s quota advances democracy, affirmative action and action for women and that his party voted to preserve the quota.
“The MDC by its actions preserved the women’s quarter, youth quarter, the quarter for women in the councils as well as devolution and that cannot be called selling out.’’
Mwonzora: Our MPs were faced with a genuine dilemma in Parliament
