Movement For Democratic Change (prior To 2005)

Movement For Democratic Change (prior To 2005)

Politics of Zimbabwe
Political parties
Elections

Prior to its split in 2005, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was a Zimbabwean political party organised under the leadership of Morgan Tsvangirai. The MDC was formed in 1999 as an opposition party to President Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF). The MDC was made up of many civic groups who campaigned for the "No" vote in the 2000 constitutional referendum, which would limit a president's service to two terms, before the introduction of a Prime Minister, as well as giving legal immunities to the State. However, as it was the term limit was not retroactive, Mugabe could still have maintained the presidency for two more terms. The most controversial part of the constitution was the land reform policies. It stated that, as in the Lancaster House Agreement, Britain would fund land reform from white settlers to landless black peasants. If Britain failed to compensate the farmers, the government would take the farms, without compensation. The party split over whether to contest the 2005 senate election, into the Movement for Democratic Change - Tsvangirai (MDC-T), the larger party still led by Morgan Tsvangirai, and the Movement for Democratic Change – Ncube, a smaller faction then led by Arthur Mutambara and currently led by Welshman Ncube.