Mr Yushchenko's friends fear for his safety.With or without him, there is too little active public support to give the opposition real clout.
As a former elected official, I have seen the power of people to create change despite the opposition and clout of well-connected and well-financed organizations and lobbyists.
Amr Hamzawy, a political scientist and liberal political leader, said the size of the vote against the constitution was a measure of the opposition's growing clout.
But why does he exaggerate the legitimacy and clout of opposition members of Congress who, whether through silence or outright endorsement, are surrendering to the nuts?
Regional research unit NKC African Economics has described Mujuru as "perhaps Zimbabwe's last realistic hope of salvation", saying the veteran politician had more political clout than current opposition leaders.
The problem with the previous round of negotiations, held last year in Geneva, was that delegates from the political opposition in exile had little clout with the people actually doing the fighting in Syria.
Adding even a handful to her tally of 19 national MPs would make her especially powerful.Nationally, Congress and the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) retain the greatest clout.
At a time of domestic uncertainty, running down the foreign opposition is popular.America is certainly losing clout in relative terms, but it will remain the world's most fearsome military power for a very long time.
As the leader of the pro-democracy opposition, and with all the political clout she had accumulated as the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, the generals just wanted to be rid of her.
Russian political commentator Leonid Ivashov tells Lenta.ru that she has "more clout" than the other opposition leaders and could "restore order".
In addition, Chancellor Angela Merkel, operating in a so-called "grand coalition" government in which the opposition party has a lot of clout, remains politically constrained in her ability to carry out the kinds of economic and labor reforms she would like.
