MDC wins Zimbabwe speaker role

President Robert Mugabe and his ruling Zanu-PF party were stunned yesterday when an opposition candidate was elected speaker of the new coalition partliament in a dramatic first sitting of the Zimbabwean Parliament since the election five months ago. Lovemore Moyo of Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) won the ballot by 110 votes to 98 - thanks to a secret turnaround by most of the 10 MPs of the breakaway MDC faction headed by Arthur Mutambara, and a handful of Zanu (PF) MPs who supported the Tsvangirai grouping, MDC sources claimed. Zanu-PF had not put up a candidate, preferring instead to back Mutambara's candidate Paul Themba Nyathi.

It is the first time that the opposition has held the powerful position since Zimbabwe's independence in 1980. The speaker's post is crucial because Moyo will now take charge of contentious debates in the hung parliament if no power-sharing deal is reached.