MDC man the new speaker

from the Times:

MOVEMENT For Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai reasserted his popularity in Zimbabwe yesterday when his party won a fiercely contested vote to determine the Speaker of parliament — only hours after two MPs were detained by the police....

Lovemore Moyo, the MDC’s national chair , was elected Speaker of Zimbabwe’s seventh parliament after a secret ballot in which 208 MPs voted.

Moyo secured 110 votes, while his adversary, Paul Themba Nyathi of the breakaway MDC faction led by Arthur Mutambara, could only garner 98. President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF chose not to field a candidate, supporting Nyathi instead.

But yesterday Mutambara became irrelevant when MPs voted with their conscience and not along party lines.