Allan Markham dumps Harare East constituency

Zim Now Writer

Allan Markham, who was former Citizens Coalition for change leader, Nelson Chamisa’s preferred choice for Harare East constituency in the capital, has dumped the constituency through his resignation from Parliament.

Markham becomes the second sitting legislator, and curiously, from Harare, to follow Chamisa, who abandoned the fractious opposition outfit, after Mount Pleasant Member of Parliament, Fadzayi Mahere, did the same last week.

Chamisa left the CCC alleging that the party had been infiltrated.

On the ground, however, Chamisa had lost control of the party to interim secretary-general, Sengezo Tshabangu, who has recalled dozens of elected legislators from Parliament, and scores of councillors, leading to two rounds of by-elections across the country, with the last one been concluded yesterday.

In his resignation letter dated January 31 to National Assembly Speaker and copied to the Clerk of Parliament, Markham wrote: “I am a sitting Member of Parliament for Harare East Constituency, having been elected on the 23rd August, 2023, under the Citizens Coalition for Change party lead (sic) by President Nelson Chamisa.

“I write to tender my resignation from Parliament with immediate effect as required under section 129(3)(b) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe.”

Markham won the right to represent the CCC in Harare East ahead of Tendai Biti following the chaotic candidate selection process the party called “bereka mwana”, in which supporters would queue behind their preferred candidate. Biti had been Harare East MP since 2000.

Biti was recalled on March 7, 2021 amid factional disputes within the MDC Alliance but was re-elected to the august House as a member of the newly-formed CCC in the March 26, 2022 by-election.