BY CHIEF REPORTER
HARARE
The Delimitation report was tabled in Parliament last Thursday, amid reports the 2008 general election would be held any weekend between March 7 and 29.
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs minister Patrick Chinamasa said Parliament was this week expected to give legal effect to the new constituency and ward boundaries demarcated by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC).
“At least seven days must elapse to allow interested parties a chance to examine the Commission’s Report,” he said. “The final constituency and ward boundaries then have to be made law by Presidential proclamation.”
Legal experts said the delimitation proclamation could be gazetted as early as Thursday except if there is a demand for changes. In that case, the President may refer the report back to the ZEC for further consideration, meaning the gazetting of the delimitation proclamation could be delayed.
The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is to say early next week whether it will take part. Earlier, it said it would boycott the general elections because all the odds were stacked in favour of Mugabe and his ruling Zanu (PF) party.
The Zimbabwean heard that two teams from both the Arthur Mutambara and Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDCs left Harare last Friday afternoon for reunification and strategy talks after the failure by SA President Thabo Mbeki to break the political stalemate over election dates and a new Constitution. Mbeki arrived in Harare on Thursday and met Mugabe for close to four hours, but the aging dictator staunchly refused to budge in response to opposition demands for elections to be delayed until the new constitution was in place.
“If there are no delays on the delimitation proclamation, it would be legally feasible to gazette the other proclamations on January 25,” said a commentary by legal service Veritas. “Assuming gazetting of the election proclamation is on January 25, the shortest election timetable permitted by law would mean the Nomination Court would have to sit on February 8, because legally there should be 14 days after gazetting of the election proclamation. At law, this means the polling day can be any day after March 7 because there should be 28 days from nomination of candidates to polling day.”
Traditionally, said the commentary, polling in Zimbabwe has been over weekends, so most likely the polling dates are likely to fall on the weekend of March 8 and 9, or 15 and 16 or the weekend of March 29 and 30. The weekend of March 22 and 23 is out because it would be Easter.
Mugabe has consistently maintained that polling would “definitely be in March” and this position has been confirmed by the fact that so much has been fast tracked through Parliament over the past week.
“This could, however, be changed following the final outcome of the mediation negotiations,” the commentary said. “There is no legal necessity for dissolving Parliament and holding elections now – by law it could be as late as mid 2010. Once Parliament is dissolved, elections have to be held within four months.”
Mugabe is reported to have assured Mbeki that he would abide by a set of regional guidelines he ratified in Mauritius in 2004 to ensure that elections are free and fair.
He claims to have set up an independent electoral commission, but the MDC says the commission is biased and stuffed with Mugabe’s cronies.
Tsvangirai said: “We maintain that it is impossible to have a legitimate election in March. Such an election, under the present conditions is a useless exercise. Instead it will perpetuate the national crisis that has reduced this beautiful country to a pale shadow of itself.”
But political analysts say that the opposition MDC must make an awkward decision. If it does not take part in the election, it risks sinking into political oblivion. But if it does participate, it knows that the odds are hopelessly stacked against it.
Post published in: News