THE fight for control of the country’s main opposition party took a new twist yesterday, with 151 out of a possible 200 members who constituted the MDC-T 2014 national council structures rallying behind MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa .

The meeting followed the Supreme Court ruling made in March which declared Khupe the acting president and ordered the party to urgently hold an extraordinary congress to elect new leadership using structures that existed in 2014 when party founder Morgan Tsvangirai (now late) was still at the helm.

But yesterday, the leaders of the 2014 structures, who constituted both the national council and the national executive, met and deliberated on the Supreme Court judgment before summoning the 2014 national standing committee, including Mwonzora and Komichi, to a meeting to map the way forward on June 6.

“We, the leaders of the former national council of the former MDC, resolved in terms of the constitution to petition the former national standing committee members, including Komichi and Mwonzora, to facilitate a national council meeting within 14 days — on June 6 — to respond to the Supreme Court judgment at a venue that achieves compliance with COVID-19 lockdown regulations,” Mpariwa said.

“The Supreme Court judgment enjoined the former MDC to convene an extraordinary congress within three months and further went on to give the former VP Khupe, who at the point of Dr Tsvangirai’s death was no longer a member, having ceased attending constitutional meetings in June 2017, to be a member of the party,” Mpariwa said.