According to the agenda of the 12-day session of the parliament, Zimbabwe would come under intense debate for holding a sham one-man race presidential run-off won by President Robert Mugabe after his rival Morgan Tsvangirai of the opposition MDC party pulled out citing state-sponsored violence against his supporters.
The parliament would also deliberate on the deal signed between Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara – the president of a breakaway formation of the MDC – which ran into problems a few days after it was inked a month ago.
Pan-African Parliament will be meeting in Midrand, South Africa, as from October 27 to November 7, read a notice from the house sent to Zimbabwe yesterday from Midrand. High on the agenda, amongst other issues, is the Zimbabwean June run-off election and unity deal.
Tsvangirai withdrew from the race claiming that over 100 of his supporters had been killed, plus 200 000 families displaced and more than 10 000 injured in political violence perpetrated by state security agents, war veterans and ZANU PF militia.
However, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission went ahead with the run-off, saying Tsvangirai’s pullout had no legal effect and Mugabe won the election by over 85 percent.
Mugabe’s victory was condemned worldwide, resulting in the Southern African Development Community and the African Union resolving that Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara should open negotiations to form a government of national unity.
The talks, under the mediation of former South African President Thabo Mbeki, culminated in the signing of a unity pact on September 15.
However, the deal ran into problems a few days after Mugabe, Mutambara and Tsvangirai inked the pact.
Mugabe insisted on retaining key ministries, among them, defence, home affairs, finance, justice, information and local government, a move the MDC said would be tantamount to power grabbing, not sharing.
Mbeki is in Harare trying to resolve the impasse on the allocation of the ministries.
Under the deal, Mugabe should have 15 Cabinet ministers, Tsvangirai 13 and Mutambara three. – ZimOnline
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