Proposed Zimbabwe coalition failing to take off

One by one candidates for Zimbabwe's 2018 general elections are coming out in the open as a possible grand coalition to face President Robert Mugabe is failing to take off due to different interests among political parties.

The first to toy with the idea of going into politics full swing was #thisflag campaigner Pastor Evan Mawarire in February this year. On Monday‚ his lawyer Fadzai Mahere declared interest in running for the Mount Pleasant parliamentary seat as an independent. The seat is currently under Zanu PF.

But the biggest announcement came Thursday from a former minister in President Robert Mugabe's cabinet. Dr Nkosana Moyo told journalists that he would face his former boss for the presidency.

"I must heed the call to run for President of Zimbabwe‚" he said.

Moyo‚ a former African Development Bank Vice President‚ also made it clear that "he was never a member of Zanu PF" since he was invited as part of a team of technocrats to be part of Mugabe's cabinet in the year 2000. He resigned a few months into the job.

But that would be a tough sell. Already the opposition Movement for Democratic Change has branded him a "Zanu PF project" bent on diverting "the people's will".

The new developments come at a time when a proposed coalition‚ of which Dr Moyo says "combining things does not always bring desired results"‚ has seemingly hit a snag.

Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change and Mugabe's former Deputy Joice Mujuru of the National People Party’s (NPP) have so far failed to agree on the distribution of constituencies and who will be the coalition's presidential candidate.