Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), has announced that it is changing its name to Citizens’ Coalition for Change (CCC).
The announcement was made by party leader Nelson Chamisa.
The MDC emerged in the late 1990s, arising out of Zimbabwe’s trade union movement. It soon became the greatest threat to Robert Mugabe and ZANU-PF in post-independence Zimbabwe. It only failed to unseat ZANU-PF thanks to violence and outright cheating by the ruling party.
In recent years, though, it has been plagued by infighting, with a number of movements and groups claiming the name and the mantle of being the real MDC.
This led to Chamisa’s announcement as a way of providing voters with a clear option. He also said the new party’s colours would be yellow, rather than the MDC’s traditional red.
In 2018 Chamisa narrowly lost a presidential election to Emerson Mnangagwa, although there were widespread accusations by Zimbabweans and international observers of fraud and vote-rigging.
The next Zimbabwean election is scheduled for next year.
[Image: John Mukwasha, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=78745943]