Most delegates arriving in Gweru on Thursday for the MDC Alliance's elective congress demonstrated Zimbabwe's economic pinch, opting to spend the night sleeping in cars and buses.
Hotel and other accommodation facilities hiked charges in anticipation of an influx of visitors to the usually sleepy town in Midlands province.
The election of provincial and other office-bearers got under way yesterday, with voting for the opposition group's leading positions scheduled for today.
MDC president Nelson Chamisa went into the congress uncontested, but there was stiff competition for the post of secretary-general, among Charlton Hwende, Douglas Mowonzora - who initially eyed the presidency - and Fortune Daniel Molokela.
Four party heavyweights - Tendai Biti, Welshman Ncube, Elias Mudzuri and Morgan Komichi - are fighting for the two vice-president positions. The fact that two of these leaders will be disappointed could create problems for Chamisa.
The daughter of the late party leader Morgan Tsvangirai, Vimbai, cannot attend the congress because she is in hospital after a car accident last week, but she hopes to win the post of secretary-general of the women's assembly.
With the party operating on a shoestring budget, some of its aspiring office-bearers dipped into their own pockets to make the congress a success.
Ncube donated 10 cows to help feed the crowd, estimated to be about 6,000. However, some within the ranks view this as vote buying.
"He feeds you and then you vote for him. That's how it goes and it's not fair, but the situation is like this because the party is broke," said a representative from Gweru.
He feeds you and then you vote for him. That's how it goes and it's not fair
— A MDC Alliance representative on Welshman Ncube's cattle donation
The congress went ahead despite a last-minute high court application this week by party member Maureen Tavengwa, of the Gokwe Sesame district, to have it stopped.
She argued the congress could not go ahead with "illegitimate leaders and without a constitutionally elected president".
Meanwhile, maverick Ugandan opposition stalwart Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, 37, popularly known by his stage name Bobi Wine, received a warm welcome as the guest of honour.
Fears that Ssentamu, a fierce critic of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, would not be allowed into Zimbabwe proved unfounded.
Museveni is a close ally of the government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Ssentamu, who is also a musician and actor, has been in and out of jail for his political activity. He leads the People Power Movement of Uganda.
"Bobi Wine represents the future of Uganda and Africa. He is also friends with Chamisa," said Nkululeko Sibanda, spokesperson for Chamisa.
The MDC Alliance's invitation to the Ugandan opposition leader can be seen as a sideswipe at the Zanu-PF government, which invited Museveni to officiate at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair in April.
"There is a movement for the advancement of progress in Africa that Chamisa has inspired," Sibanda said.
"Africa is transitioning from post-colonial tyrannical, oppressive regimes that appropriated the struggles of liberation as rent for untold plunder worse than that of Western colonisers."
The MDC Alliance also invited Raila Odinga, the former Kenyan prime minister who now leads the Orange Democratic Movement opposition. He sent his secretary-general, Edwin Sifuna, to Gweru in his place.
The MDC Alliance said Odinga had been a close ally of Tsvangirai.
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