those  loyal  to  Vice  President  Nelson  Chamisa,  as  the  succession  battle  became  more  and   more  vicious  and  destructive.89     •   There  is  a  deep  seated  anger  with  MDC-­‐T  for  expelling  5  Bulawayo  MPs  from  parliament  in   2015,  after  Tendai  Biti  and  others  split  away  from  the  MDC-­‐T,  over  issues  of  policy  and   behaviour.  Tsvangirai  expelled  a  total  of  17  ‘rebel’  MPs  and  4  senators  from  the  MDC-­‐T  in   April  2014.  They  lost  their  parliamentary  seats  at  his  invocation  in  March  2015,  and  the   MDC-­‐T  then  forbade  its  potential  candidates  from  contesting  any  by-­‐elections  for  the   constituencies  of  the  expelled  MPs,  thereby  handing  these  seats  to  ZANU  PF  on  a  silver   platter.90     o   Bulawayo  opposition  supporters  had  been  very  proud  of  the  fact  that  after  2013,   they  had  remained  the  only  province  in  Zimbabwe  that  had  conceded  not  a  single   seat  to  ZANU  PF  since  2000  –  only  to  have  MDC-­‐T  hand  over  almost  half  of   Bulawayo’s  constituencies  to  ZANU  PF  -­‐  5  out  of  12  -­‐  without  any  attempt  to  contest   these.     •   Tendai  Biti  has  made  similar  gaffes  as  far  as  Matabeleland  is  concerned.  After  leaving  the   MDC-­‐T,  he  and  others  formed  the  People’s  Democratic  Party  (PDP),  and  Gordon  Moyo  of   Bulawayo  was  the  Secretary  General.  However,  in  2017,  Moyo  resigned  from  the  PDP  and   crossed  the  floor  to  join  the  Mujuru  Rainbow  Coalition.  This  was  after  he  felt  that  as   Secretary  General  he  ought  to  have  been  consulted  before  the  PDP  joined  the  MDC  alliance,   instead  of  reading  about  this  in  the  newspaper  –  once  more  the  marginalization  of  the   opinions  of  Bulawayo  was  highlighted.91       These  above  grievances  were  expressed  in  Bulawayo  by  those  who  have  followed  party  politics   keenly.  At  another  level,  that  of  citizens  simply  going  about  their  daily  struggle  for  existence,  the   following  reservations  about  bothering  to  register  and  vote  were  expressed.     •   This  region  has  consistently  voted  for  the  opposition,  yet  nothing  has  changed  economically,   in  fact  things  have  become  much  worse  since  2000.     •   Politics  doesn’t  change  things  on  the  ground:  to  go  and  register,  people  have  to  sacrifice   their  time  that  could  be  spent  vending  or  doing  something  else  to  put  food  on  the  table.   •   Acquiring  the  necessary  documents,  in  particular  proof  of  residency,  is  too  difficult  and  may   require  running  around  trying  to  get  an  affidavit  signed  by  a  possibly  uncooperative  landlord   and  a  commissioner  of  oaths  in  the  first  place,  and  then  going  to  register.     •   Distrust  in  the  process  of  voting  is  another  factor.  There  has  been  much  publicity  over  the   last  decade  about  the  unfairness  of  the  voting  system  in  Zimbabwe.  2017  has  been  no   different  in  that  regard,  as  previously  outlined.                                                                                                                     89  Magaisa,  Alex:  “MDC-­‐T  –  when  things  fall  apart”,  Big  Saturday  Read,  10  February  2018.   https://www.bigsr.co.uk/single-­‐post/2018/02/10/Big-­‐Saturday-­‐Read-­‐MDC-­‐T-­‐-­‐-­‐when-­‐things-­‐fall-­‐ apart.     90  This  was  on  grounds  that  the  electoral  playing  field  was  uneven,  and  reforms  were  needed  to  the  Electoral   Act,  but  this  excuse  has  been  used  when  it  suits  MDC-­‐T  and  ignored  when  it  does  not  in  the  last  two   decades.  A  similar  position  of  not  wanting  to  contest  the  first  senate  election  in  2005  led  to  the  first  major   split  in  the  MDC.     91  https://www.newsday.co.zw/2017/09/fissures-­‐rock-­‐pdp-­‐npp-­‐coalition/     28